Pretreatment of bagasse by UCT-Solvent for the enzymatic hydrolysis

A thermochemical pretreatment of bagasse for the enzymatic hydrolysis has been carried out, in which pretreatment bagasse was autoclaved with binary solvent, composed of Water and organic solvent having upper critical temperature (UCT) on the mutual solubility curve. The pretreatment was named “UCT-solvent pretreatment.” The hydrophobic decomposition products from lignin and hemicellulose, that dissolved in organic phase at room temperature, could be easily separated from the solid and sugars in the aqueous phase. By using UCT-solvent instead of only water, the sugar recoveries from bagasse through the pretreatment and the enzymatic hydrolysis were much improved. There exists an optimal mixing ratio between organic solvent and water to maximize the effect of the pretreatment for enzymatic hydrolysis. The optimal ratio can be explained by the competitive effect between the ability of water as a reagent for the hydrolysis and the ability of solvent for the extraction of the decomposition product, and furthermore by the competitive effect between affinities of the solvent to hydrophilic hemicellulose and hydrophobic lignin. Decomposition of hemicellulose at lower temperature than 190°C was decreased, and hence the degradation of xylose during the pretreatment decreased. These favorable effects of UCT-solvent pretreatment are significantly attributed to the formation of the homogeneous single phase of organic solvent and water at high temperature and the phase separation at room temperature.