Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2008, 9(9), 1621-1651; doi:10.3390/ijms9091621
Pretreatment of Lignocellulosic Wastes to Improve Ethanol and Biogas Production: A Review
Mohammad J. Taherzadeh 1,*
and Keikhosro Karimi 1,2
and Keikhosro Karimi 1,21
School of Engineering, University of Borås, 501 90 Borås, Sweden
2
Department of Chemical Engineering, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, 84156-83111, Iran
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Received: 5 March 2008 / Revised: 27 August 2008 / Accepted: 1 September 2008 / Published: 1 September 2008
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biofuels R&D: Securing the Planet's Future Energy Needs)
Abstract
Lignocelluloses are often a major or sometimes the sole components of different waste streams from various industries, forestry, agriculture and municipalities. Hydrolysis of these materials is the first step for either digestion to biogas (methane) or fermentation to ethanol. However, enzymatic hydrolysis of lignocelluloses with no pretreatment is usually not so effective because of high stability of the materials to enzymatic or bacterial attacks. The present work is dedicated to reviewing the methods that have been studied for pretreatment of lignocellulosic wastes for conversion to ethanol or biogas. Effective parameters in pretreatment of lignocelluloses, such as crystallinity, accessible surface area, and protection by lignin and hemicellulose are described first. Then, several pretreatment methods are discussed and their effects on improvement in ethanol and/or biogas production are described. They include milling, irradiation, microwave, steam explosion, ammonia fiber explosion (AFEX), supercritical CO2 and its explosion, alkaline hydrolysis, liquid hot-water pretreatment, organosolv processes, wet oxidation, ozonolysis, dilute- and concentrated-acid hydrolyses, and biological pretreatments. View Full-TextKeywords:
Pretreatment; biogas; methane; ethanol; lignocellulose; waste; biodegradation
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0).
Scifeed alert for new publications
Never miss any articles matching your research from any publisher- Get alerts for new papers matching your research
- Find out the new papers from selected authors
- Updated daily for 49'000+ journals and 6000+ publishers
- Define your Scifeed now
Share & Cite This Article
MDPI and ACS Style
Taherzadeh, M.J.; Karimi, K. Pretreatment of Lignocellulosic Wastes to Improve Ethanol and Biogas Production: A Review. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2008, 9, 1621-1651.
Related Articles
Article Metrics
Comments
[Return to top]
Int. J. Mol. Sci.
EISSN 1422-0067
Published by MDPI AG, Basel, Switzerland
RSS
E-Mail Table of Contents Alert