The influence of variety type on dilute acid pretreatment-hydrolysis responses of sugarcane bagasse

This study evaluated the influence of variety type on dilute acid pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis responses in terms of xylose, glucose and total combined sugar yields of eight varieties of sugarcane bagasse. The pretreatment was carried out in small tubular reactors. The materials were pretreated under five different conditions and hydrolysed with a standard enzyme dosage (15 FPU/g water insoluble solids, WIS). Pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis responses showed xylose, glucose and combined sugar ranged from 7.0 to 19.6; 12.7 to 32.4 and 28.5 to 54.4 g/100g dry raw material, respectively. The variability of sugar yields was attributed to breeding technology and type of varieties. The xylose yield was not always consistent with the verity type or breeding technology. The cellulose digestibility was significantly affected by the variety type for most of classical breeding varieties and was less obvious for precision breeding varieties. It was also established that most of precision breeding varieties were superior in digestibility than many classical breeding varieties. These findings will significant contribution to the sugarcane development with the aim of selecting sugarcane with highly hydrolysable fibres in conjunction with high biomass and sucrose yield per hectare to make lignocellulose to ethanol process affordable.