Biorefinery valorization of autohydrolysis wheat straw hemicellulose to be applied in a polymer-blend film

The aims of this study were the extraction of hemicellulose from wheat straw (WS) and its utilization in the reinforcement of a κ-carrageenan/locust bean gum (κ-car/LBG) polymeric blend films (PBFs). WS hemicellulose extraction was performed under autohydrolysis process and hemicellulose extracted (HE) under optimum condition was used in PBFs. PBFs were prepared varying different proportions of HE into the κ-car/LBG film-forming solutions. Barrier properties (water vapor permeability, WVP), mechanical properties (tensile-strength, TS and elongation-at-break, EB), moisture content, opacity and thermal properties of the resulting PBFs were determined and related with the incorporation of HE. The 2-3-2 proportion (in the high ratio) of PBF (κ-car/LBG/HE) causes a slight decrease of WVP and an increase of the TS, thus resulting in an improvement of the physical properties of PBFs. HE showed to be a promising material in order to reinforce κ-car/LBG PBF and can be an alternative in the application of hemicellulose according to biorefinery concept.