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Banana (Musa acuminata) cultivation and trade are widespread across various regions and countries globally. Nonetheless, substantial quantities of waste, primarily comprising leaves and stems of the banana plant, are annually disposed of into the environment post-harvest. This study aims to highlight this issue and propose an alternative solution in response to the escalating demand for raw materials. To this end, alkaline pretreatment was administered to particles derived from banana waste leaves and stems using NaOH solutions at concentrations of 1%, 3%, and 5%, followed by board production. Results indicate that water absorption (WA) and thickness swelling (TS) values of the produced boards increased with alkaline treatment. However, the mechanical properties stipulated in the TS-EN 312 (2012) standard were satisfactorily achieved with 1% NaOH treatment, while higher concentrations adversely affected internal bond strength (IB), modulus of elasticity (MOE), and modulus of rupture (MOR). In the surface properties tests of the boards, increasing the alkali concentration decreased values of the surface roughness and the contact angle. Overall, the findings suggest the viability of utilizing banana waste as an alternative resource.

In this study, effect of low temperature-short time alkali pretreatment of hazelnut shells on glucose recovery after enzymatic hydrolysis was investigated. NaOH pretreatment was found to give the highest glucose recovery. Therefore, pretreatment conditions with NaOH were optimized based on glucose recovery. As a result of different alkali pretreatment, glucose yield was ranged between 10.12-45.53%, lignin removal was 19.48-53.84%. Energy requirements for 1 gram of glucose was between 10.03-219.46 kj. Considering both glucose recovery and energy requirement, best pretreatment conditions were 2.25%, NaOH with a solid to liquid ratio 1/10, and pretreatment temperature of 60oC for 30 min, 1/10 solid to liquid ratio. At these conditions, glucose recovery and lignin removal were 37.23% and 44.22% respectively, and energy requirement for pretreatment was 60.90 kJ/1 g glucose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]