The work reported here is based on acceleration of enzymatic hydrolysis of plant biomass substrate by introduction of low intensity, uniform ultrasound field into a reaction chamber (bio-reactor). This method may serve as improvement of rates in the hydrolysis of cellulosic materials to sugars, which in turn may be converted to biofuel ethanol in a fermentation step.

In experiments, corn stover was contacted with a buffered enzyme solution in a reactor capable of delivering a uniform sonication of cellulosic materials. The result showed that the improvement in the saccharification rates was 44 to 61 percent, dependent on the addition of sonication field, but was also dependent on the type of agitation. A mathematical model was used to define the effectiveness factor.