Tuesday, April 20, 2010
8-96

Dilute acid and hot water pretreatment of wheat straw using a solvent extractor

Bo Zhang1, Abloghasem Shahbazi2, Lijun Wang1, Oumou Diallo2, and Allante Whitmore2. (1) Natural Resources and Environmental Design, North Carolina A & T State University, 1601 East Market Street, Greensboro, NC 27411, (2) Natural Resources and Environmental Design, North Carolina A&T State University, 1601 East Market Street, 123 Sockwell Hall, Greensboro, NC 27411

Using wheat straw to produce biofuel will add value to the land and will also reduce emissions of greenhouse gases by replacing petroleum products. In order to investigate the feasibility of converting wheat straw into ethanol, wheat straw underwent dilute sulfuric acid and hot water pretreatment processes in a solvent extractor, which provides a fast heating rate of 25 °C/min. The pretreatment processes were studied using the following treatment variables: reaction temperature (100-190°C, 1500 psi) and residence time (5-15 min). The pretreatment processes and enzymatic saccharification were evaluated for conversion of wheat straw cellulose and hemicellulose to monomeric sugars. Both dilute sulfuric acid and hot water pretreatment processes were able to effectively increase enzymatic digestibility of wheat straw cellulose. And a high temperature (180-190°C) pretreatment resulted in more total extractables. However, HPLC analysis showed that this higher temperature caused a breakdown of the sugars.

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