Valdeir Arantes
Valdeir Arantes has a B.Eng in Industrial Chemical Engineering (with emphasis in Biotechnology) and a Ph.D. in Industrial Biotechnology from the University of São Paulo with research stays at Purdue University and University of Maine in the USA. Following a Postdoctorate in Industrial Biotechnology for Renewable Products at the University of British Columbia in Canada, he was appointed as a Research Associate and team leader of the Enzymatic Processing of Biomass for Biorefinery Group at the same University, when for six years he also coordinated multi-international projects in Biochemical Conversion of Lignocellulose involving academic, government, and private institutions from across Canada, China, and the USA. Appointed as an Assistant Professor at the University of São Paulo, he returned to Brazil where at the Lorena School of Engineering he is the Coordinator of the Undergraduate Program in Biochemical Engineering and Vice-Head of the Department of Biotechnology, implemented and coordinates the Biocatalysis and Bioproducts Laboratory with focus on the development of bioprocessing technologies for converting biomass into nanocelluloses and industrial sugars. Valdeir is also a Research Productivity Fellow in Chemical Engineering/Bioprocesses for the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development’s (CNPq), a member of the editorial board of the international journals Bioethanol Journal, BioMed Research International Biotechnology, and Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology and Energy Research, and have also served as a consultant to several international research funding agencies such as the US Department of Agriculture’s Small Business Innovation Research, Kentucky Science & Engineering Foundation, Estonian Research Council, and to the Research Executive Agency of the European Commission.
Enzymatic processing of plant-based cellulose for production of cellulose nanocrystals
Cellulose nanocrystals have unique properties, innumerous possible applications and have been mainly produced by acid hydrolysis of cellulosic pulp. Alternatively, cellulose nanocrystals can also be isolated from cellulose materials by enzymatic hydrolysis, which offers many advantages as well as some drawbacks over the traditional acid hydrolysis.
This presentation will first give an overview on the state-of-the-art of nanocellulose production assisted by enzymes. Then, we will show and discuss the research progress achieved in the NANOCEL project, a multi-year project aimed at developing/identifying enzyme cocktails for nanocellulose production. In this context, we have comprehensively characterized several enzyme preparations, with an apparent potential to be used for nanocellulose production, regarding their reaction kinetics and enzyme activities during enzyme-assisted production of CNC.
Results for the major properties of the CNCs produced like crystallinity, particle size and size distribution, stability of the CNC suspensions, as well as their thermal stability, have revealed that the type and ratio of the enzymes are just important and influential as the reaction conditions (i.e. time and enzyme dosage). Examples with commercially available enzymes will also be given to illustrate how one can tailor some of the CNC properties by adjusting the reaction conditions and key enzyme components.