Comparison of Pretreatment Methods for Production of Ethanol from Sugarcane Bagasse

Abstract

Sugarcane bagasse (SCB) was modified by steam explosion pretreatment at 190 °C for 10 min and 210 °C for 5 min using green liquor (GL) combined with hydrogen peroxide (GL-H2O2) and ethanol (GL-Ethanol) for simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF)-based ethanol production. The results showed that 85.02% and 100% of hemicelluloses were solubilized by steam explosion pretreatment at 190 °C for 10 min and 210 °C for 5 min, respectively. Moreover, 20.08% and 73.77% of the lignin was removed through GL-H2O2 and GL-Ethanol pretreatments, respectively. The steam explosion pretreatments greatly improved the specific surface area of the SCB and led to the highest ethanol yield of 92.20% at 190 °C for 10 min and 93.19% of 210 °C for 5 min, respectively. In addition, the ethanol yield reached 72.58% for the GL-Ethanol pretreatment, and about 70% of active lignin could be recovered from the pretreatment liquid. When the GL-H2O2 pretreatment was used, the maximum ethanol yield of 20.92% was achieved.