Investigation of two-step pretreatment method for production of ethanol from lignocellulosic biomass

Xiaojuan Wang, Hao Feng, Bin Wang, Zhiyi Li

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

For developing new pretreatment methods of fuel ethanol production, hemicellulose separation two-step pretreatment method and lignin separation two-step pretreatment method were investigated using switchgrass and corn stover. In the hemicellulose separation two-step pretreatment, a cellulose digestibility of 89% was obtained (Step 1 with the condition of 2%wt H 2O 2, 50°C and 16 h; Step 2 with the condition of 121°C and 30 min), while in the lignin separation two-step pretreatment, the highest cellulose digestibility of corn stover was 83% (Step 1 with the condition of 1%wt NaOH, 70%wt ethanol solution, 80°C and 2 h; Step 2 with the condition of 135°C and 30 min). SEM micrographs showed that the surface of biomass had been altered and the accessibility of enzymes had been improved. Hemicellulose and lignin separated from the feedstock could be recovered for the production of value-added products. The results indicate that these two pretreatment methods have a promising future, and are very helpful for the industrialization of fuel ethanol production.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)194-200
Number of pages7
JournalNongye Gongcheng Xuebao/Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering
Volume28
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 1 2012
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Digestibility
  • Ethanol
  • Fuel
  • Lignocellulosic biomass
  • Two-step pretreatment

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Agricultural and Biological Sciences
  • Mechanical Engineering

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