Studies on physicochemical changes during alkali pretreatment and optimization of hydrolysis conditions to improve sugar yield from bagasse

Abstract

This study presents alkali pretreatment of sugarcane bagasse (SCB) and conditions were optimized to improve susceptibility to enzymatic saccharification. Maximal recovery of sugars was obtained with following pretreatment conditions: biomass loading, 5%; NaOH conc., 3%; and residence time at 121 degrees C, 60 min. Physicochemical changes in feedstock after alkali pretreatment, analyzed using SEM, FTIR and XRD, confirmed decrease in lignin content and effective de-polymerization after pretreatment. Optimization of biomass and enzyme loading, surfactant concentration and incubation time for enzymatic hydrolysis was done using a response surface Box Behnken design, which resulted in 94% saccharification efficiency. Surfactant concentration had a major role in hydrolysis and increase in biomass loading improved sugar yield.