Comparison of alkali and steam (acid) pretreatments of lignocellulosic materials to increase enzymic susceptibility: Evaluation under optimised pretreatment conditions

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Abstract
The alkali pretreatment of sugar cane bagasse was optimised and compared with an optimised steam (acid) pretreatment. The optimised alkali pretreatment gave an overall sugar yield of 37.4 g sugars per 100 g bagasse accounting for 43.8% of the initial xylan and 64.5% of the glucan. Potential effluent problems were identified with the alkali treatment and several strategies were suggested to minimise them, with liquor recycling showing some promise. The optimised steam (acid) pretreatment gave an overall sugar yield of 55.7 g sugars per 100 g bagasse accounting for 76.5% of the xylan and 89.5% of the glucan. The superiority of the steam (acid) pretreatment over the alkali pretreatment depends on the ability to utilise the xylose produced.

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