Abstract
Lignocellulosic feedstock materials are the most abundant renewable bioresource material available on earth. It is primarily composed of cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin, which are strongly associated with each other. Pretreatment processes are mainly involved in effective separation of these complex interlinked fractions and increase the accessibility of each individual component, thereby becoming an essential step in a broad range of applications particularly for biomass valorization. However, a major hurdle is the removal of sturdy and rugged lignin component which is highly resistant to solubilization and is also a major inhibitor for hydrolysis of cellulose and hemicellulose. Moreover, other factors such as lignin content, crystalline, and rigid nature of cellulose, production of post-pretreatment inhibitory products and size of feed stock particle limit the digestibility of lignocellulosic biomass. This has led to extensive research in the development of various pretreatment processes. The major pretreatment methods include physical, chemical, and biological approaches. The selection of pretreatment process depends exclusively on the application. As compared to the conventional single pretreatment process, integrated processes combining two or more pretreatment techniques is beneficial in reducing the number of process operational steps besides minimizing the production of undesirable inhibitors. However, an extensive research is still required for the development of new and more efficient pretreatment processes for lignocellulosic feedstocks yielding promising results.
Highlights
Lignocellulosic feedstock represents an extraordinarily large amount of renewable bioresource available in surplus on earth and is a suitable raw material for vast number of applications for human sustainability
The presence of lignin in the biomass inhibits the hydrolysis of cellulose and hemicellulose
Critical analysis of pretreatment methods bring us to a conclusion that pretreatment method is a ‘tailor-made’ process for every individual biomass which should be meticulously selected and planned based on the characteristic properties of biomass
Summary
Lignocellulosic feedstock represents an extraordinarily large amount of renewable bioresource available in surplus on earth and is a suitable raw material for vast number of applications for human sustainability. Under optimum processing conditions at screw speed of 350 rpm, barrel temperature of 80 °C and 40% moisture content, 95% cellulose was converted glucose These above studies clearly demonstrate that mechanical extrusion treatment had a significant effect on breakdown of cellulose and hemicelluloses fractions from a wide variety of lignocellulosic feedstocks; when combined with other pretreatment methods, mechanical extrusion performs better and might enhance the overall yields of the reducing sugars. In order to make an economically viable pretreatment method, research is in progress in different areas such as generation of industrially feasible ozone concentrations, development of reactors such as packed bed, fixed-bed, and stirred tank semi-batch reactors that are capable of accommodating large quantities of lowmoisture (
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