Abstract
Rapid industrialization, increasing energy demand, and climate change are the conditions that forced the researchers to develop a clean, efficient, renewable, and sustainable source of energy which has a potential to replace fossil fuels. Ethanol is one of the attractive and suitable renewable energy resources. In present study, effectiveness of microwave pretreatment in combination with sodium hydroxide (NaOH) for increasing enzymatic hydrolysis of rice straw has been investigated and under optimum conditions obtained a maximum reducing sugar (1334.79 µg/mL) through microwave assisted NaOH pretreatment. Chemical composition analysis and scanning electron microscope (SEM) images showed that the removal of lignin, hemicellulose, and silicon content is more in microwave assisted NaOH pretreatment than the blank sample. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis revealed that the crystallinity index of rice straw treated with microwave assisted alkali (54.55%) is significantly high as compared to the blank (49.07%). Hence, the present study proves that microwave assisted alkali pretreatment can effectively enhance enzymatic digestibility of rice straw and it is feasible to convert rice straw for bioethanol production.
Highlights
In recent times, due to increase in concerns for climate change and greenhouse gas emissions, research work has been inclined towards the development of sustainable and renewable energy resources
The results demonstrated that removal of amorphous parts of the rice straw, that is, lignin and hemicellulose, was more in sample treated with microwave assisted NaOH than untreated and blank
The combination of microwave pretreatment with NaOH increases the saccharification of rice straw by removing lignin and hemicelluloses in large quantity and increases its accessibility to enzymes, respectively
Summary
Due to increase in concerns for climate change and greenhouse gas emissions, research work has been inclined towards the development of sustainable and renewable energy resources. In 2005 and 2006, worldwide production capacity of ethanol was about 45 and 49 billion litres, respectively, and the total projected demand in 2015 is over 115 billion litres [2]. Lignocellulosic materials are abundant, cheap, and renewable and may be used as a substrate for ethanol production through microbial intervention [3]. Cereal straws are the most abundant resource which can serve as a potential feedstock for the production of biofuel [4]. Rice contains 23% straw of its total weight. In India, open-field burning of rice straw contributes up to 0.05% of total GHG emissions [5]
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