Sumac (Rhus chinensis Mill) biomass refinery engineering / 生物工程学报

ABSTRACT

Sumac (Rhus chinensis Mill) is an abundant and widely distributed Chinese native plant. Sumac fruit contains low content of vegetable oil, as an atypical oil plants hardly being processed through traditional vegetable oil production technologies. Based on our own studies on the characteristics of sumac fruit and branches, we established a novel model of sumac biomass refinery, and constructed the sumac biomass refinery technology system and eco-industrial chain integration. Steam explosion was the key technology, and several components fractionation technologies were integrated in the sumac biomass refinery system. The fractionated components were converted into different products depending on their functional features. Eight products including sumac fruit oil, biodiesel, protein feed, flavonoids, unbleached facial tissue, phenolic resin, biomass briquette and biogas were produced in the refinery. The extracted sumac fruit oil by steam explosion pretreatment was applied for the new food resource of Ministry of Health, and the permit was approved. This research provides a new model for the development of atypical wild plant resources.