Paper Waste Management: Extraction of Fermentable Sugar from Lignocellulosic Waste Paper

Abstract

The utilization of paper on a commercial scale is increasing day by day throughout the world that
produces million of tons of paper waste yearly and burdened for landfills. The present study
focuses on the exploitation of waste papers (office paper, newspaper and tissue paper) as a
cheapest alternative source of energy to extract fermentable sugar by applying chemical and
enzymatic pretreatments. The quantification of released sugar was analyzed by spectrophotometer
and high performance liquid chromatography refractive index (HPLC-RI) detector. Cellulose (12
FPU/g) and β-glucosidase (12 FPU/g) was found to be effective for the extraction of fermentable
sugar from paper waste. The contents of cellulose (C6H10O5)n, hemicellulose (C5H10O5)n and
lignin (C9H10O2,C10H12O3,C11H14O4) found in office paper were 40%, 32.5%, 22.5%, in newspaper
46.5%, 30.5% 22.5%, and in tissue paper 62%, 22%, 15.5%, respectively. The percentages of
sugar contents assessed in this study were 62% in tissue paper and 46.5% in newspaper and 40%
in office papers. Among the three substrates, tissue paper (23.4 mg/mL) released a significant
amount of glucose (C6H6O12), whereas newspaper (20.8 mg/mL) and office paper (19.6 mg/mL)
released less amount of sugar. This research of acid pre-treatment and enzymatic hydrolysis was
an efficient method to improve glucose conversion from lignocellulosic waste. Furthermore, this
approach can be proved the first step towards the sustainable production of bioethanol from
wastepaper-extracted sugar.