Extraction of hemicelluloses from fiberized spruce wood

A novel mechanical pre-treatment method was used to separate the wood chips into fiber bundles in order to extract high molecular weight wood polymers. The mechanical pre-treatment involved chip compression in a conical plug-screw followed by defibration in a fiberizer. The fiberized wood was treated with hot water at various combinations of time and temperature in order to analyze the extraction yield of hemicelluloses at different conditions. Nearly 6 mg/g wood of galactoglucomannan was obtained at 90 °C/120 min which was about three times more than what could be extracted from wood chips. The extracted carbohydrates had molecular weight ranging up to 60 kDa. About 10% of each of the extracted material had a molecular weight above 30 kDa. The extraction liquor could also be reused for consecutive extractions with successive increase in the extraction yield of hemicelluloses.