Pretreatment is an important tool for practical bio-conversion process, which is required to alter the structure of biomass and to make it more accessible to the enzymes that convert cellulose into fermentable sugars. Various mechanical, chemical, thermo-chemical, and biological methods have been used for pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass. However, most of the conventional pre-treatment technologies have inefficiencies related to batch processing, small capacity and low solids loading and high energy consumption. An alternative pretreatment method, continuous twin screw-driven reactor (CTSR) pretreatment can provide a unique continuous reactor environment for a combination of thermo-mechanical and chemical pretreatments of lignocellulosic biomass at high throughput and solid levels.
Objective of this study was the development of protocol for CTSR pretreatment of empty fruit bunch (EFB) as a model biomass. The current study was undertaken to investigate the influence of acid concentration(1.0-4.0%), barrel temperature (150-180 °C) and screw speed (5-20 rpm) for maximum sugar recovery. All the independent variables had a strong influence on sugar recovery and it was confirmed through enzymatic hydrolysis test. Simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) for bioethanol production was conducted with pretreated EFB at optimized CTSR conditions.