**6. Market of eco-friendly and high added-value products derived from lignocellulosic wastes**

In recent years, a great number of studies have focused on the use of lignocellulosic waste due to the high volume generated by the agroindustrial sector and

**49**

**Table 1.**

*Getting Environmentally Friendly and High Added-Value Products from Lignocellulosic Waste*

the need to manufacture new eco-friendly materials. Through a specialized search in the innovation platform "Lens" and using the keywords "cellulose," "hemicellulose," "lignin," "nanocellulose," and "novel" between 2006 and 2020, an increase is shown in the production of research papers regarding cellulose, lignin, and nanocellulose. On the other hand, **Table 1** shows the estimated market size of some of the major high value-added products from lignocellulosic waste before the

**Applications Negative** 

Textile, paper, fiberreinforced, and starch foams

Ethanol and fermentation products

Adhesives and binders

Biomedical, personal care, oil gas, paint, coatings, food, paper processing, and composites

Transport, construction, and electronics

**impact**

Stranded supply chains, breach of contracts, supply chain shortage, and temporary closure of department stores

Fuel ethanol consumption decreased

Temporary business closure, automotive supply chain, and automotive adhesives

Disruption in production and supply chains

Temporary closure of assembly plants

**Opportunities References**

[120–123]

[124, 125]

[126, 127]

[128, 129]

[92]

Increased the digital market, strengthening of the local supply chain, new buying and selling cycle, personal hygiene and protections equipment, made of corrugated paper, demand for toilet paper and sanitizing wipes, and medical materials packaging

Opportunities in disinfection of medical materials and equipment

Packaging adhesives and adhesives for medical applications

Development antimicrobial surfaces and packaging

Medical applications

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.93645*

**Estimated market size before COVID-19**

billion USD by 2025

**Lignocellulosic waste**

Cellulose \$48.37

Hemicellulose \$1.3 billion

Lignin Lignin

Nanocellulose \$0.78

Biocomposites \$46.30

USD by 2007

market size worth \$1.12 billion USD by 2027

billion USD by 2025

billion USD by 2025

*Estimated market of products from lignocellulosic waste.*

### *Getting Environmentally Friendly and High Added-Value Products from Lignocellulosic Waste DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.93645*

the need to manufacture new eco-friendly materials. Through a specialized search in the innovation platform "Lens" and using the keywords "cellulose," "hemicellulose," "lignin," "nanocellulose," and "novel" between 2006 and 2020, an increase is shown in the production of research papers regarding cellulose, lignin, and nanocellulose. On the other hand, **Table 1** shows the estimated market size of some of the major high value-added products from lignocellulosic waste before the


#### **Table 1.**

*Estimated market of products from lignocellulosic waste.*

*Biotechnological Applications of Biomass*

**5. Pellets elaboration**

and after an enzymatic process with cellulase there were released different fermentable sugars, moreover, bioethanol in presence of ethanol-producing microorganisms was produced. High concentrations of different sugars were released, with acid hydrolysis, such as glucose, xylose, cellobiose, arabinose, and fructose, with a range of ethanol production between 4.2 and 14.3 g/L [112]. Similarly, Talekar et al. [113] incorporated hydrothermal processing in combination with acid and enzymatic hydrolysis in pomegranate peels to recover pectin, phenols, and bioethanol. They recovered pectin ranges of 19–21% and phenolic compounds between 10.6 and 11.8%.

Pellets are a type of biomass fuel, that is made from different agroindustrial biomasses; as an example, pellets are a derivative of forest biomass such as wood, sawdust, fruit shells, and kernels as well as agricultural remains derived from straw, corn stove, rice husk, and additionally from plant species with energetic potential such as *Jatropha* and *Ricinus communis* [114], which serve as a source of energy; therefore, it is a good way to use and recycle agricultural surpluses. However, the pellet production is not only focused on using them in the energy industries as solid fuel and thus avoid the use of nonrenewable energy resources such as coal, natural gas, nuclear energy, and oil [115]. Nowadays, the high cost of fossil fuels has led to a high consumption of energy pellets, mainly, since some biomasses are capable of producing a similar calorific index than the oil. Hence, the use of biomass as a heating fuel had an increase in the last decade [116]. Besides, biomass is considered as a carbon-neutral fuel due to the fact that there are no additional carbon dioxide concentrations like fossil energies [117]. However, for the pellets to be used in restaurant kitchens and home kitchens, the biomass must be treated to avoid toxic pollutants for health. For example, it is known that after the consumption of biomass pellets, these produce ashes, which in their contents have high concentrations of chlorides, sulfides, carbonates, and silica among others that can be toxic to the health [118]. Different authors have pretreated the biomass with methodologies such as alkaline hydrolysis and heat treatment to obtain liquors rich in ashes, sugars, and other chemicals. In that sense, Retsina and Pylkkanen (2014) [119] used different treatments of the feedstock to produce an extract liquor that contained different chemicals such as soluble ash, hemicellulosic oligomers, acetic acid, dissolved lignin, and cellulose; the authors produced low-ash biomass ready to be transformed into energetic pellets. One of the most important parameters in the pellet production is its durability and is given by the pellet durability index (PDI). In order to achieve those parameters of PDI, strategies have been implemented to remove lignocellulose and sugars efficiently with the use of alkaline hydrolysis. Those molecules influence the final PDI of the pellet and its energetic capacity. For example, Tang et al. (2018), evaluated the release of lignin, soluble sugars, and whole particle size on the PDI of the untreated and treated Poplar (*Populus* spp.) wood sawdust, with a combination of alkaline and acid pretreatments and steam. The authors presented that PDI increased with those treatments, more specifically,

**6. Market of eco-friendly and high added-value products derived from** 

In recent years, a great number of studies have focused on the use of lignocellulosic waste due to the high volume generated by the agroindustrial sector and

**48**

with acidic pretreatment.

**lignocellulosic wastes**

COVID-19 pandemic as well as the negative impacts and area of opportunity caused by COVID-19. Based on the report by Global Market Insight [130], the market size for nanocellulose was close to 146.7 million USD in 2019 and is expected to grow to 418.2 million USD in 2026 because the global nanocellulose market indicates an increase in demand for certain applications by 2026, like paper processing, food and beverage packaging, paint and coatings, among others. It is important to mention that the term "nanocellulose" used in this report includes micro/nanofibrillated cellulose, cellulose nanocrystals, and bacterial nanocellulose. Among the main nanocellulose manufacturing companies [128], we can mention: Fiberlan technologies (UK), Borregard (Norway), Nippon Paper Industries (Japan), Celluforce (Canada), etc. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, demand also increased in the pulp and paper industry, mainly in personal hygiene paper products, food packaging products, corrugates packaging materials, and medical specialty papers [120]. Based on the above, we can conclude that the materials obtained from lignocellulosic residues have a wide field of application and have been successfully positioning themselves in the market before and after COVID-19.
