Physical and chemical differences between one-stage and two-stage hydrothermal pretreated hardwood substrates for use in cellulosic ethanol production

Abstract

We hypothesize that these physical and chemical differences between the substrates contribute to the differences seen during fermentation including: ethanol yield, ethanol titer, fermentation rate, fermentation completion time, mixing, and substrate solubilization. These findings can be used in optimizing pretreatment parameters to maximize ethanol conversion and overall process yield for hardwood substrates.