Sugarcane bagasse hydrolysis enhancement by microwave-assisted sulfolane pretreatment

Portero Barahona, Patricia ; Carvajal Barriga, Enrique Javier ; Martín-Gil, Jesús ; Martín-Ramos, Pablo (Universidad de Zaragoza)

Resumen: Sugarcane bagasse is the major by-product of the sugarcane industry and, due to its abundant availability, it has been extensively studied for lignocellulosic bioconversion in the production of bioethanol and other value-added commercial products. In the study presented herein, a combined pretreatment using sulfolane, TiO2 and alkali microwave irradiation (MW-A) was assessed for the dissolution of lignin prior to enzymatic saccharification of holocellulose. Total reducing sugars (TRS) and saccharinic acid yields were investigated. The increase in NaOH concentration up to 5% and in temperature from 120 °C to 140 °C were found to have a positive influence on both yields. While increasing the reaction time from 5 to 60 min only led to an increase in TRS yield <2%, a reaction time of 30 min almost doubled the saccharinic acids production. TRS yields and saccharinic acid production were approximately 5% and 33% higher when the sulfolane-TiO2 reaction medium was used, as compared to MW-A in water, reaching up to 64.8% and 15.24 g/L of saccharinic acids, respectively. The proposed MW-A pretreatment may hold promise for industrial applications, given the good TRS yields obtained, and the associated enzyme and time/energy savings. The use of sulfolane-TiO2 reaction medium is encouraged if saccharinic acids are to be recovered too.

Idioma: Inglés

DOI: 10.3390/en12091703

Año: 2019

Publicado en: Energies 12, 9 (2019), 1703 [15 pp.]
ISSN: 1996-1073

Factor impacto JCR: 2.702 (2019)

Categ. JCR: ENERGY & FUELS rank: 63 / 112 = 0.562 (2019) - Q3 - T2

Factor impacto SCIMAGO: 0.635 - Control and Optimization (Q2) - Electrical and Electronic Engineering (Q2) - Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment (Q2) - Energy Engineering and Power Technology (Q2) - Fuel Technology (Q2) - Energy (miscellaneous) (Q2)

Tipo y forma: Article (Published version)

Área (Departamento): Area Ingeniería Agroforestal (Dpto. CC.Agrar.y Medio Natural)