Abstract:
The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of hydrotropic delignification of cotton
stalk on sugar release performance for bioethanol production. In this study, different alkyl
benzene sulfonates were screened to select the best pretreatment agent, and the effectiveness
of pretreatment was evaluated by enzymatic saccharification. Sodium cumene sulfonate was
found to be the best hydrotropic agent in terms of reducing sugar yield. Parameters such as
hydrotrope concentration, biomass loading and incubation time were optimized by adopting a
central composite design. Under optimized pretreatment conditions, 0.211 g reducing sugar/g
of dry biomass was obtained. Reusability of aqueous hydrotrope solution was also
demonstrated.
