Acetic Acid Catalyzed Steam Explosion for Improving the Sugar Recovery of Wheat Straw

Acetic acid-catalyzed steam explosion pretreatment was applied to wheat straw at temperatures of 190 and 210 °C for 2, 6, and 10 min of residence time. The effects of pretreatment conditions on the total gravimetric recovery, hemicellulose sugars, glucose content, and yield of the enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose were studied. The results indicated that the total gravimetric recovery decreases while the solubility of hemicellulose and the yield of cellulose enzymatic hydrolysis increase as the pretreatment severity increases. Pretreatment at 190 °C with a 2-min residence time resulted in the highest total gravimetric recovery, 58.9%. The optimum defiberation, glucose content, and enzymatic hydrolysis yields of 70.4 and 79.6%, respectively, occurred following pretreatment at 210 °C with a 10-min residence time. The optimal pretreatment condition was determined to be 190 °C for 10 min. Under the optimum conditions, the recovery yield of all sugars reached 42.7%. This pretreatment resulted in the highest recovery yield of all sugars.