Pretreatment of cellulosic biomass is one of the most processes in the generation of ethanol. It is routinely performed with acid or enzyme treatments for the transformation of cellulosic polymers into soluble sugars which will be catalytically subjected to generate alcohol under anaerobic conditions. Scientists are in an active research throughout the world to hasten the pretreatment process for timely product recovery which has resulted in new protocols in alcohol production technology. Some of the recently developed technologies include
An extrusion process melded with alkaline peroxide chemical pretreatments allows the lignin and hemicellulose in biomass to be solublized, and the cellulose component to be made available for enzymatic breakdown. This process is called the Xylan Delignification Process (XDP). It was found that the XDP process allowed quick (6 hour) and reasonably complete (85–88%) hydrolysis of the cellulose fraction of cornstalks, but was less effective in allowing utilization of the switch grass and The BALI pretreatment process, developed by Borregaard enables production of valuable products out of all three main lignocellulosic components – cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin. It facilitates low cost hydrolysis of cellulose by lowering the energy consumption and recirculation of enzymes. With platforms from classical methods theses new modifications tend to make the process convenient for economically wise production of alcohol.
