Hydrothermal, solar and laser pretreatments techniques and high pressure digestion to enhance sugarcane bagasse bioconversion and high-value chemicals recovery

Abstract

The pretreatment of lignocellulosic feedstocks is an essential step and is required to alter the structure of biomass residues and expose the lignocellulosic fractions for easy access of polysaccharides during enzymatic hydrolysis and enhance the rate and yield of reducing sugars. In this study, new methods, not yet employed in our research group, are proposed such as concentrated solar power (CSP), and pulsed laser ablation (PLA) which will be analyzed and, then, compared to the conventional hydrothermal Pretreatment (HT) in terms of lignin degradation, and polysaccharides solubilisation. To do that, independent variables will be evaluated in order to optimize the HT, CSP and PLA pretreatments of sugarcane bagasse. Biomethane potential (BMP) tests will be performed under both atmospheric and elevated pCO2 conditions using the optimal pretreatments conditions to determine the anaerobic biodegradability, potential efficiency, concentration of methane and organic acids.