Steam explosion pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis of eucalyptus wood

Wood from Eucalyptus globulus Labill has been pretreated under various conditions of acid impregnation and steam explosion. The effects of these pretreatment conditions have been assessed by measuring monomer (xylose and glucose) and oligomer solubilization. Samples pretreated under conditions that yielded optimal hemicellulose solubilization for acid impregnated or non-impregnated wood have been further subjected to enzymatic hydrolysis, using a preparation of cellulases, enriched in xylanase activities. Saccharification efficiencies were found to be equivalent for both types of impregnation.