Determination of Sources of Organic Matter in Solid Waste by Analysis of Phenolic Copper Oxide Oxidation Products of Lignin
Publication: Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 142, Issue 2
Abstract
The decomposition behavior of lignocellulosic materials is related to the taxonomic classes of the parent plant tissues. Thus, methods to characterize the composition of mixtures of lignocellulosic materials such as municipal solid waste (MSW) according to different taxonomic classes of plants are useful. The copper oxide (CuO) oxidation products of lignin provide molecular markers that allow for characterization of the initial plants. The objective of this study was to determine if the chemical composition of the monomers present after CuO oxidation can be used to infer information on the content of woody angiosperms (hardwood—HW), non-woody angiosperms (leaves and grasses—LG), woody gymnosperms (softwood—SW), and non-woody gymnosperms (needles—GN). Results showed that the composition of HW and SW in synthetic mixtures can be estimated from CuO oxidation products of lignin within an error of of the expected values. The high uncertainty in the estimate of composition in synthetic mixtures can be attributed to the fact that the components selected for the synthetic mixtures had different CuO oxidation products compared to the average which was used in developing the mixing model. Application of the mixing model to estimate the composition of samples from a Kentucky (KY) landfill showed that the majority of the samples are from HW and SW with little to no non-woody tissues (LG, GN). However, the mixing model is not sufficiently precise to infer more detailed information on MSW composition.
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Acknowledgments
The authors thank David Black of Environmental Engineering laboratory, NCSU; Dr. Ilona Pezslen of the Department of Forest Biomaterials, NCSU for providing the wood samples; April Bauder of NCSU turf farm for providing the grass samples; and Dr. Alexander Krings, and Dr. Mark Weathington of Raulston arboretum for assistance on plant tissues collection and identification. Funding for this research was provided by the National Science Foundation and Waste Management Inc.
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Published In
Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 142 • Issue 2 • February 2016
Copyright
© 2015 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Aug 20, 2014
Accepted: Aug 19, 2015
Published online: Oct 16, 2015
Published in print: Feb 1, 2016
Discussion open until: Mar 16, 2016
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