Monday, May 2, 2011
Grand Ballroom C-D, 2nd fl (Sheraton Seattle)
In Japan, softwood is one of the suitable materials for production of bio-fuels, since forest of softwood accounts approximately 19% of total land area, and it is widely used for constructing the traditional Japanese house. Japanese cypress (Chamaecyparis obtuse), which is known for its high quality lumber has been attracted a lot of interest as a potential feedstock in Japan. In this study, the alkaline peroxide treatment of Japanese cypress was investigated using sodium hydrogen and peroxide hydrogen to develop an environmentally-friendly pretreatment method for producing fuels and chemicals from softwood. The sample and NaOH aq were added into an Erlenmeyer flask of 50 ml, and H2O2 was poured into it. The flask was shaken at 200 rpm for 3-21 h in 50-90ºC. Treated samples were washed with flow water more than 5 min, and rinsed with distilled water. The washed samples was vacuum-dried at 55 ºC for 3 h, and hydrolyzed using commercial cellulase (Acremozyme, Meji Seika co., Japan).The residue recoveries in the alkaline peroxide treatment decreased gradually depending on the increase in temperature. However, the glucose yield was more than 50% (based on the raw material) which was the highest at 70 ºC for 21 h although the yields of xylose and mannose were lower than other conditions. The content of hemicellulose in the residue was low since it was decomposed during the pretreatment. These results suggest that the alkaline peroxide hydrogen treatment has the potential as the pretreatment for obtaining glucose from softwood in enzymatic hydrolysis.