Viscous reduction of carboxymethyl cellulose treated with ambient-air glow discharge using peristaltic pumps

Recently, the applications to biofuel processes have attracted much attention owing to the wide-spread concerning of fuel depletion. A highly promising way of production of low-cost biofuel is utilization of lignocellulosic materials. Lignocellulosic materials consist primarily of cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin and are persistent. Therefore, chemical pretreatment methods such as acids and alkalis are necessary to improve the efficiency of enzymatic degradation. However, these methods have an environmental impact in the waste-liquid treatment. The radical irradiation of suspensions of carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) revealed that oxygen atoms are very effective to decrease CMC molecular weight for improving the efficiency of enzymatic degradation, but it was not suitable for practical use because it employs Ar and O₂ gases. We have developed an atmospheric-pressure plasma device generating plasma using ambient air with peristaltic pumps to improve the reaction of radicals and CMC. From the results using the device, it was confirmed that the viscosity changes depending on the flow rate of the pump and found that molecular weight of CMC decreases more effectively than that of the oxygen radical irradiation.