title: Characterization of dilute acid pretreatment of silvergrass for ethanol production.
abstract: Pretreatment with dilute sulfuric acid of silvergrass was compared with the pretreatment's effect on other commonly used lignocellulosic materials, namely rice straw and bagasse, in order to evaluate the potential of this feedstock for ethanol production. The highest yield of xylose from silvergrass was between 70% and 75%, which was similar to bagasse. However, silvergrass gave a higher level of fermentability than bagasse using the hydrolysate because less acetic acid was formed. The release of sugars resulted in an about 2.0-fold increase in specific surface area of the pretreated silvergrass. Increasing the specific surface area did not obviously enhance enzymatic digestibility. The hydrophilicity of the acid pretreated silvergrass was characterized using its Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra. The increase in hydrophilicity may enhance enzymatic adsorption onto lignin and increase the accumulation of cellobiose for enzymatic hydrolysis as pretreatment severity increases.
authors.affiliation: Cellulosic ethanol project, Institute of Nuclear Energy Research, Taoyuan 32546, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Gia-Luen
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: Wei-Hsi
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Wen-Heng
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Lee-Chung
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Men
authors.forename: Wen-Song
authors.initials: WS
authors.lastname: Hwang
mesh_terms: D000143:Acids / Q000494:pharmacology*; D000431:Ethanol / Q000378:metabolism*; D005285:Fermentation; D006868:Hydrolysis; D007700:Kinetics; D006109:Poaceae / Q000378:metabolism*; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared; D013624:Taiwan
chemical_list: D000143:Acids; D000431:Ethanol