Chemical characteristics of ozone treated aspen wood meal

Since the role of lignin in the wood cell wall is to keep integrity and structure rigidity of lignocellulosic substrate, lignin of the cell wall has to be destroyed before enzymatic hydrolysis of wood polysaccharides. The aspen wood meals were delignified with ozone in acidic condition. The chemical characteristics of wood meal were investigated. The 60% of lignin and almost zero % of polysaccharides in aspen wood meal was degraded with lOmin. ozone treatment. The phenolic hydroxyl groups of lignin in ozonated wood meal were increased with ozonation time. The sugar composition of ozonated wood meal showed that the hemicellulose was more susceptible to ozonation than cellulose. The yield of aldehyde was increased in some degree with lOmin. ozone treatment and decreased with longer ozone treatment.