Literature Review on Pretreatments of Lignocellulosic Biomass

Abstract

Pretreatment can increase the conversion efficiency of lignocellulose biomass into biofuels. There are several major pretreatment methods, such as mechanical, chemical and biological pretreatment. In this paper, the application, feasibility and limitations of these kinds of pretreatments are compared. Pretreatment methods disintegrate the basic lignocellulosic structure of biomass, and change the relative composition of lignin, cellulose and hemicelluloses in the material. The application of pretreatments breaks the long-chain hydrogen bond in cellulose, making hemicelluloses amorphous, and loosening the lignin out of the lignocellulosic matrix, resulting in better quality. According to the discussion, the biological pretreatment was taken into the best pretreatment method in the future.