BACKGROUND A two-stage chemical pretreatment of corn stover is investigated comprising an NaOH pre-extraction followed by an alkaline hydrogen peroxide (AHP) post-treatment. We propose that conventional one-stage AHP pretreatment can be improved using alkaline pre-extraction, which requires significantly less H2O2 and NaOH. To better understand the potential of this approach, this study investi...

We introduce a new pretreatment called co-solvent-enhanced lignocellulosic fractionation (CELF) to reduce enzyme costs dramatically for high sugar yields from hemicellulose and cellulose, which is essential for the low-cost conversion of biomass to fuels. CELF employs THF miscible with aqueous dilute acid to obtain up to 95 % theoretical yield of glucose, xylose, and arabinose from corn stover ...

Typical pretreatment requires high-energy (steam and electricity) and corrosion-resistant, high-pressure reactors. A review of the literature suggests that fungal pretreatment could potentially lower the severity requirements of acid, temperature and time. These reductions in severity are also expected to result in less biomass degradation and consequently lower inhibitor concentrations compare...

As a promising alternative of fossil fuel, ethanol has been widely used. In recent years, much attention has been devoted to bioethanol production from lignocellulosic biomass. In previous research, it is found that the pretreatment method named low-moisture anhydrous ammonia (LMAA) has the advantage of high conversion efficiency and less washing requirements. The purpose of this study was to e...

This research applied sodium hydroxide (NaOH) pretreatment and trace elements to improve biomethane production when using corn stover for anaerobic digestion. Full-factor experimental tests identified the best combination of trace elements with the NaOH pretreatment, indicating that the best combination was with 1.0, 0.4, and 0.4 mg·L(-1)·d(-1) of elements Fe, Co, and Ni, respectively. The cumu...

Bioethanol derived from lignocellulosic biomass has the potential to replace gasoline. Cellulose is naturally recalcitrant to enzymatic attack, and it also surrounded by the matrix of xylan and lignin, which enhances the recalcitrance. Therefore, lignocellulosic materials must be pretreated to make the cellulose easily degraded into sugars and further fermented to ethanol. In this work, hydroth...

Pretreatment with white-rot fungi can effectively remove lignin and decompose the structure of biomass to enhance subsequent enzymatic hydrolysis. This study developed a novel fungal pretreatment of biomass, which was operated under non-sterile conditions. The white-rot fungus Irpex lacteus colonized stably on the non-sterile substrates and effectively degraded lignin. After non-sterile fungal ...

If lignocellulosic biomass is to become a viable competitor with fossil based resources for the production of energy and chemical products, sustainable sources of this material must be established. To address this issue an understanding about the risks affecting biomass sources and the biorefineries which they supply is crucial. In this paper, a quantitative approach using Bayesian Belief Netwo...