Possibilities of using lignocellulosic materials whose origin is agricultural in Republic of Croatia

Pojam lignocelulozne sirovine odnosi se na ostatke iz drvne i prehrambene industrije te različite poljoprivredne ostatke. Ove sirovine sastoje se od celuloze, hemiceluloze i lignina, a u novije vrijeme sve se više radi na njihovoj primjeni za dobivanje različitih biotehnoloških proizvoda (npr. organskih kiselina, enzima, biogoriva, antibiotika, mikrobne biomase i biopesticida). Prije početka biotehnološkog procesa potrebno je razmotriti pojedine metode predobrade različitih vrsta lignoceluloznih sirovina radi razgradnje njihove složene strukture. Metode predobrade dijele se na fizikalne, fizikalno-kemijske te kemijske i biološke. Nakon predobrade može se provesti odgovarajuća detoksikacija da bi se spriječila inhibicija bioprocesa. Posebno su razmotrene mogućnosti korištenja lignoceluloznih sirovina poljoprivrednog porijekla u Republici Hrvatskoj. Obzirom na količine otpada nastalog u poljoprivrednoj proizvodnji, najdostupniji lignocelulozni materijali dobivaju se kao sekundarni proizvodi pri uzgoju kukuruza (kukuruzovina, kukuruzna komušina, kukuruzni oklasci), pšenice (pšenična slama) , ječma (slama ječma) i šećerne repe (rozeta šećerne repe). Također se provode istraživanja uvođenja tzv. energetskih trava koje bi mogle postati perspektivna lignocelulozna sirovina.Lignocellulosic materials are residues from wood and food industry as well as different agricultural residues. These materials consist of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin. Recently, the use of lignocellulosic materials have became actual in preparation of biotechnological products (such as organic acids, enzymes, biofuels, antibiotics, microbial biomass and biopesticides). Because of their complex structure, lignocellulosic materials require the appropriate methods of pretreatment before starting biotechnological process. Methods of preatreatments are divided in physical, physical-chemical, chemical and biological. After the preatreatment it's possible to carry out detoxification in order to avoid inhibition of the bioprocess. Lignocellulosic materials of agricultural origin available in Republic of Croatia are considered in this work. According to amounts of agricultural waste most available lignocellulosic materials are by-products of: corn cultivation (corn stover, corn husk, corn cobs), wheat (wheat straw), barley (barley straw) and sugar beet (leaf rosette of sugar beet). Some researches have been also conducted in order to introduce so called energetic grasses which could become perspective lignocellulosic material