Application of hydrodynamic cavitation as a physico-chemical pretreatment method for bioethanol production

Pretreatment technology is a prerequisite to facilitate the conversion of lignocellulosic biomass into fermentable sugars for bioethanol production. In this study, hydrodynamic cavitation (HC) was employed as a physico-chemical means to improve alkaline pretreatment of reed. The HC-assisted alkaline pretreatment was undertaken to evaluate the influence of NaOH concentration (1−5%), solid-to-liquid ratio (5−15%), and reaction time (20−60 min) on glucose yield. The optimal condition was found to be 3.0% NaOH at S/L ratio of 11.8% for 41.1 min, which resulted in the maximum glucose yield of 326.5 g/kg biomass. Furthermore, simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) was conducted to assess the ethanol production. An ethanol concentration of 25.9 g/L and ethanol yield of 90% were achieved using batch SSF. These results demonstrated HC system can be a promising pretreatment tool for bioethanol production.