Abstract
Lignocellulosic materials from forest or agroindustrial activities are sources for obtaining different natural fibres and biopolymers, which may have low density and biodegradability and excellent mechanical and physical properties. These materials constitute a new source of a huge variety of different biochemical compounds, between them, oligosaccharides having prebiotic properties. Colombia is an agricultural country, having a great potential for developing the lignocellulosic biomass processing which can lead to a variety of products and reach the zero residue in the different agricultural production chain. In this work, different agricultural residues typical from the Santander region, such as panela cane bagasse, empty fruit bunch from oil palm, cocoa shells, coffee husks, among others, were selected and characterized to determine the cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin and other fractions content. Depending to the lignocellulosic materials analysed, the hemicellulose and cellulose fractions varied between 5.4 – 37.0 wt.% and 7.9 – 41.4 wt.% of the dry biomass, respectively. Avocado seeds have a higher glucose content (41.4 wt.%) but a poor xylose fraction (4.5 wt.%), while biomass as panela cane bagasse has a homogeneous distribution having 32 wt.% glucose and 35 wt.% xylose, respectively. Additionally, the biomass production in Colombia and its composition were used to evaluate the potential of producing different oligomers, such as Xylooligosaccharides, Arabinooligosaccharides, Mannanoligosaccharides and Glucooligosaccharides, as well as the potential for energy generation for the biomass selected. The distribution of these fractions evidences the possibility of obtaining high added value compounds from biomass that can be used for both energy recovery and food industry.
