College of Engineering

Naomi Nakajima

LeBow College of Business Business and Engineering

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Richard A. Cairncross Chemical & Biological Engineering

Extracting Sugars from Bagasse Waste for BioFuel and BioProduct Production

Sugar cane refining produces a biomass by-product called bagasse that can be used as a fuel for powering the electrical utilities but is often underutilized. The Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida (SCGC) uses bagasse to produce consumer products and produces a bagasse residue wastewater stream that is still rich in dissolved sugars and lignocellulosic material. The bagasse residue is being evaluated at Drexel for recycling into fuels and chemicals. Analysis of the composition is challenging because the residue contains both monomeric sugars and polysaccharides in addition to lignin, salts, and other impurities. This project quantifies the composition of the bagasse residue and analyzes methods for extraction of useful components. This poster presents several techniques for evaluating sugar composition including gas chromatography, high-performance liquid chromatography, acid precipitation, and the phenol sulfuric acid method.