PRETREATMENT TECHNOLOGIES IN BIOETHANOL PRODUCTION FROM LIGNOCELLULOSIC BIOMASS

• Main Authors: Vanja Janušić, Duška Ćurić, Tajana Krička, Neven Voća, Ana Matin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Faculty of Agrobitechnical Sciences Osijek 2008-07-01
• Series: Poljoprivreda
• Subjects: lignocellulosic biomass; pretreatment; bioethanol
• Online Access: http://poljoprivreda.pfos.hr/upload/publications/poljoprivreda-14-1-10.pdf

Bioethanol is today most commonly produced from corn grain and sugar cane. It is expected that there will be limits to the supply of these raw materials in the near future. Therefore, lignocellulosic biomass, namely agricultural and forest waste, is seen as an attractive feedstock for future supplies of ethanol. Lignocellulosic biomass consists of lignin, hemicellulose and cellulose. Indeed, complexicity of the lignocellulosic biomass structure causes a pretreatment to be applied prior to cellulose and hemicellulose hydrolysis into fermentable sugars. Pretreatment technologies can be physical (mechanical comminution, pyrolysis), physico-chemical (steam explosion, ammonia fiber explosion, CO2 explosion), chemical (ozonolysis, acid hydrolysis, alkaline hydrolysis, oxidative delignification, organosolvent process) and biological ones.