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Study of chemical pretreatment and enzymatic saccharification for producing fermentable sugars from rice straw

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Abstract

This study evaluated a cost-effective approach for the conversion of rice straw into fermentable sugars. The composition of rice straw pretreated with 1 % sulfuric acid or 1 % sodium hydroxide solution was compared to rice straw with no chemical pretreatment. Enzymatic saccharification experiments on non-pretreated rice straw (NPRS), pretreated rice straw (PRS), and pretreated rice straw with acid hydrolysate (PRSAH) were conducted in a series of batch reactors. The results indicated that pretreating the rice straw with dilute acid and base increased the cellulose content from 38 % to over 50 %. During enzymatic saccharification, straight aliphatic cellulose was hydrolyzed before branched hemicellulose, and glucose was the major hydrolysis product. The glucose yield was 0.52 g glucose/g for NPRS and was comparable to the yields of 0.50 g glucose/g for PRS and 0.58 g glucose/g for PRSAH. The hydrolysis of rice straw to produce glucose can be described by a first-order reaction with a rate constant of 0.0550 d−1 for NPRS, 0.0653 d−1 for PRSAH, and 0.0654 d−1 for PRS. Overall, the production of fermentable sugars from ground rice straw will be more cost effective if the straw is not pretreated with chemicals.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by a grant from the Taiwan National Science Council (NSC 101-2221-E-197-009).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Engineering, National Ilan University, Yilan, 260, Taiwan

    Wen-Hsing Chen

  2. Institute of Environmental Engineering, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, 30010, Taiwan

    Yi-Chun Chen & Jih-Gaw Lin

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  1. Wen-Hsing Chen
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  2. Yi-Chun Chen
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  3. Jih-Gaw Lin
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Correspondence to Wen-Hsing Chen or Jih-Gaw Lin.

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Chen, WH., Chen, YC. & Lin, JG. Study of chemical pretreatment and enzymatic saccharification for producing fermentable sugars from rice straw. Bioprocess Biosyst Eng 37, 1337–1344 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-013-1106-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-013-1106-0

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