Production of nanocellulose from waste materials to be used as wastewater treatment of dyes, hormones or drugs

The lignocellulosic biomass is the most important renewable resource worldwide for obtaining several products, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, creating opportunities to rural areas, and promoting food, health and energy security. However, the use of biomass should not compete with food products; therefore, the use of waste is presented as the best alternative. Among all products, nanocellulose is a highly absorbent, porous fiber that can be easily molded. This makes it perfect for manufacturing hygiene products and adsorption fibers for cleaning pollutants at very low concentrations. In this work, the production of nanocellulose from waste materials will be studied for adsorbing hormones, dyes and-or drugs. Design of experiments for producing nanocellulose and kinetic models of the adsorption will also be carried out. This proposal is under the CELISE project (MSCA-RISE from H2020).