Improvement of fermentable sugar extraction from hazelnut shells through microwave assisted dilute acid pretreatment

The most effective method for producing fermentable sugars (FSs) from biomass is thermochemical pretreatment assisted by enzymatic hydrolysis. However, the hydrolysis-assisted limited formation of fermentation inhibitors, and it time-consuming. There growing interest in using a microwave (MW) due to its uniform rapid heating. This study aimed determine, perform data-driven modeling, optimize effect MW combined with dilute acid (MW-DA) on production FSs hazelnut shells. An artificial neural networks (ANNs) model based Box-Behnken Design (BBD) was best described sugar extraction (FSE). Optimization via BBD-based ANNs carried out an concentration 0.5 2% (w/w), time 5 25 min, pressure 15 bar, temperature 120 160 °C. optimized FSE estimated at 374 mg/g (81.4% conversion efficiency), severity factor 3.61 under 1.58% H2SO4 13 min °C 8.5 bar. Using MW-DA process lowered costs significantly decreases time.