Abstract

Fall leaves are biodegraded and composted naturally in forests but they are wastes for urban areas. Moreover, they are widely available cellulose sources but have limited applications. Alkaline peroxide treatment of bioresources is one of the most widely studied clean methods for both delignification and hemicellulose removal but there is no study about application of that method on fall leaves at room temperature. In this study, the effect of alkaline peroxide treatment of fall leaves at room temperature on hemicellulose recovery and cellulose delignification were investigated. Fall leaves (FL) were treated with 0.3-3.0 M NaOH + 0-3 M H2O2 at room temperature. Hemicellulose recovery and cellulose delignification values were analyzed. Hemicellulose recovery and cellulose delignification increased and yield decreased by increasing NaOH and H2O2 concentrations. Hemicellulose recovery and cellulose delignification reached to the maximum levels, 99.5% and 81.6% respectively, at 3M NaOH + 3M H2O2 treatment condition. The end products were confirmed by analytically, spectrally and morphologically. Wasted fall leaves were turned into useful hemicellulose and cellulose products by using clean alkaline peroxide treatment at room temperature. The products can be further processed by known methods into other industrial products.