The pretreatment step in lignocellulosic biomass conversion: Current systems and new biological systems

Abstract

The demand for liquid fuels is constantly increasing, and ethanol from lignocellulosic biomass might be one of the most important solutions for this problem. Although biomass may be cheap, the costs of processing it can be high. Many technologies for converting biomass into bioethanol have been developed, which include the pretreatment of biomass, enzymatic saccharification of the pretreated biomass, and fermentation of the hexose and pentose sugars released by hydrolysis, and saccharification. In this chapter, the most frequently used and new biological pretreatment methods of lignocellulosic biomass are discussed. The common initial pretreatment steps of a lignocellulosic material such as drying, grinding, and granulometric classification are presented, and then the thermo-chemical and biological treatments including biopulping and enzymatic pretreatment are also discussed.