title: The use of steam explosion to increase the nutrition available from rice straw.
abstract: In the present study, rice straw was pretreated using steam-explosion (ST) technique to improve the enzymatic hydrolysis of potential reducing sugars for feed utilization. The response surface methodology based on central composite design was used to optimize the effects of steam pressure, pressure retention time, and straw moisture content on the yield of reducing sugar. All the investigated variables had significant effects (P < 0.001) on the reducing sugar yield. The optimum yield of 30.86% was obtained under the following pretreatment conditions: steam pressure, 1.54 MPa; pressure retention time, 140.5 Sec; and straw moisture content, 41.6%. The yield after thermal treatment under the same conditions was approximately 16%. Infrared (IR) radiation analysis showed a decrease in the cellulose IR crystallization index. ST noticeably increases reducing sugars in rice straw, and this technique may also be applicable to other cellulose/lignin sources of biomass.
authors.affiliation: National Engineering Research Center for Wood-based Resource Utilization, School of Engineering, Zhejiang A & F University, Linan, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: College of Engineering, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Kunjie
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: College of Engineering, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Xiang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: National Engineering Research Center for Wood-based Resource Utilization, School of Engineering, Zhejiang A & F University, Linan, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Chao
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Mechanical Engineering & Mechanics, Ningbo University, Ningbo, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Qianjun
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Shao
authors.affiliation: College of Engineering, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Qian
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: College of Engineering, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Hua
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D001709:Biotechnology; D050260:Carbohydrate Metabolism; D006868:Hydrolysis; D007259:Infrared Rays; D007700:Kinetics; D012275:Oryza / Q000737:chemistry*; D013227:Steam
chemical_list: D013227:Steam
keywords: feed; optimization; reducing sugar; rice straw; steam explosion