Production of xylose, glucose, and other products from tropical lignocellulose biomass by using maleic acid pretreatment

Abstract

Efforts to utilize hemicellulose in the biorefinery of bioethanol has been continuously grown in recent years. The utilization of hemicellulosic hydrolysate after pre-treatment was still limited due to its complex composition of sugars (xylose, glucose, arabinose), sugar degradation products (HMF and furfural), lignin degradation products (phenolic compounds), and organic acids (acetic acid also formic acid). Thus, characterization of hemicellulose hydrolysate components after pre-treatment became important. In this study, the effect of maleic acid concentrations on the production of sugars and by-products from three tropical lignocellulosic biomass: sugarcane trash, corn cob, and sweet sorghum bagasse, has been investigated. The biomass was pre-treated using various concentrations of maleic acid (1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, and 3% v/v) at 121°C for 60 minutes. The results showed the presence of xylose, glucose, acetic acid, lactic acid, HMF and furfural in all biomass hydrolysates after pre-treatment with maleic acid. SEM analysis was also conducted to identify the morphological changes of the biomass caused by maleic acid hydrolysis.