Heterogeneous catalysis for the extraction of arabinoxylans from wheat bran

Abstract

Nowadays, wheat bran is gaining interest as raw material for biorefineries due to its high content in polysaccharides. In this sense, arabinoxylans (AX), which are the most abundant valuable components in wheat bran, are seen as suitable compounds for the production of sugar alcohols. In general terms, the conversion of these hemicellulosic components from biomass into sugar alcohols is a two step reaction: 1) extraction and hydrolysis of AX and 2) hydrogenation of these hemicelluloses into polyols