Effects of different pretreatment methods on chemical composition of sugarcane bagasse and enzymatic hydrolysis

Different pretreatment processes, including liquid hot water (LHW) pretreatment, sodium hydroxide (NaOH) pretreatment, and their combinative pretreatments, were conducted to improve the enzymatic digestibility and sugar recovery from sugarcane bagasse (SCB). LHW pretreatment solubilized over 82% of xylan and 42% of lignin, after which the SCB presented the poorest enzymatic digestibility. NaOH pretreatment could remove 78% of lignin and retain most of glucan. For combinative pretreatments, the sequence of two procedures had a significant effect on the chemical composition, substrate characteristic and the subsequent enzymatic hydrolysis process. LHW–NaOH pretreatment could solubilize over 92% of xylan and remove 76% of lignin, and the highest total sugar recovery of 73% was achieved after 72 h enzymatic hydrolysis. While NaOH–LHW pretreatment, which could remove nearly 84% of lignin, but only solubilize 71% of xylan, showed the highest enzymatic digestibility. The pretreatment efficiency was: NaOH–LHW > NaOH > LHW–NaOH > LHW.