title: Supercritical fluids as a green technology for the pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass.
abstract: One of the main drawbacks for using lignocellulosic biomass is related to its recalcitrance. The pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass plays an important role for delignification and crystallinity reduction purposes. In this work rice husk (RH) was submitted to supercritical pretreatment at 80°C and 270 bar with the aim to determine the effect on lignin content, crystallinity as well as enzymatic digestibility. The yields obtained were compared with dilute sulfuric acid pretreatment as base case. Additionally a techno-economic and environmental comparison of the both pretreatment technologies was performed. The results show a lignin content reduction up to 90.6% for the sample with 75% moisture content using a water-ethanol mixture. The results for crystallinity and enzymatic digestibility demonstrated that no reductions were reached. Supercritical pretreatment presents the best economical and environmental performance considering the solvents and carbon dioxide recycling.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Biotecnología y Agroindustria, Universidad Nacional de Colombia at Manizales, Km 07 vía al Magdalena, Colombia.
authors.forename: L V
authors.initials: LV
authors.lastname: Daza Serna
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Biotecnología y Agroindustria, Universidad Nacional de Colombia at Manizales, Km 07 vía al Magdalena, Colombia.
authors.forename: C E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Orrego Alzate
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Biotecnología y Agroindustria, Universidad Nacional de Colombia at Manizales, Km 07 vía al Magdalena, Colombia. Electronic address: ccardonaal@unal.edu.co.
authors.forename: C A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Cardona Alzate
mesh_terms: D018533:Biomass; D002245:Carbon Dioxide / Q000737:chemistry; D025924:Chromatography, Supercritical Fluid; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D000431:Ethanol; D055772:Green Chemistry Technology; D008031:Lignin / Q000737:chemistry*; D012275:Oryza; D062611:Solid Waste; D013464:Sulfuric Acids / Q000737:chemistry; D014867:Water
chemical_list: D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D062611:Solid Waste; D013464:Sulfuric Acids; D014867:Water; C036909:lignocellulose; D002245:Carbon Dioxide; D000431:Ethanol; D008031:Lignin; C033158:sulfuric acid
keywords: Crystallinity; Digestibility; Lignocellulosic biomass; Recalcitrance; Supercritical pretreatment