Direct analysis of valuable by-products in cork wastewater

[EN] Cork sector plays an important economic role in several Mediterranean regions whose manufacturing process consists of several stages involving waste generation, mainly industrial water or cork boiling wastewater (CBW). These waste products have traditionally been considered as simple pollutants...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Yuste Córdoba, Francisco Javier, Largo Gosens, Asier, Mélida Martínez, Hugo, Godoy Cancho, Belén
Format: article
Status:Published version
Publication Date:2023
Country:España
Institution:Universidad de León
Repository:BULERIA. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de León
OAI Identifier:oai:buleria.unileon.es:10612/20694
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10612/20694
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Ingeniería agrícola
Cork
Wastewater
By-products
Chromatography
3102 Ingeniería Agrícola
2417.19 Fisiología Vegetal
Description
Summary:[EN] Cork sector plays an important economic role in several Mediterranean regions whose manufacturing process consists of several stages involving waste generation, mainly industrial water or cork boiling wastewater (CBW). These waste products have traditionally been considered as simple pollutants, but CBW contains interesting compounds for recovery, however, their chemical characterization is long, difficult and expensive due to the high organic load. This work studied an advanced valorization of CBW through a sequential process. In a first step, a wide range of phenolic compounds were analyzed in CBWs, identifying the most interesting ones for commercial purposes. Furthermore, the phenolic fraction was separated by green techniques and the supernatant studied to detect and quantify remained by-products, highlighting low molecular weight polyphenols together with significant concentrations of carbohydrates made up of glucose, galactose and arabinose among others. In conclusion, we propose a methodology that offers a quick and efficient way to analyze the most important byproducts in CBWs and a design of a recovery and purification process by eco-friendly and efficient techniques.