Subcritical water technology for wheat straw hydrolysis to produce value added products

• Published in: Journal of cleaner production 2014-05, Vol.70, p.68-77
• Main Authors: Abdelmoez, Wael, Nage, Soah M., Bastawess, Ali, Ihab, Ahmed, Yoshida, Hiroke
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Applied ecology; Applied sciences; Biofuel production; Biological and medical sciences; Biomass; Biotechnology; Energy; Environment and sustainable development; Exact sciences and technology; Food industries; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Hydrolysis; Industrial applications and implications. Economical aspects; Natural energy; Subcritical water; Triticum aestivum; Use and upgrading of agricultural and food by-products. Biotechnology; Wheat straw
• ISSN: 0959-6526; 1879-1786
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.02.011

The cellulosic nature of agriculture wastes makes them suitable raw materials for conversion processing to produce end products with high value added. The present works described the using of subcritical water technology for the utilization of wheat straw through hydrolysis to produce reducing sugar. The experiments were carried out under different conditions and the optimum hydrolysis parameters were investigated. The results revealed that the optimum conditions for hydrolysis were 190 °C temperature, 30 min hydrolysis time, water to straw ratio of 6/1 and feedstock particle size of 180–355 μm. The maximum obtained yield the reducing sugars (RS) under the optimum hydrolysis condition amounted to 51.5% (as weight percent) of the raw wheat straw. HPLC analysis for the produced RS showed the presence of 3.2% of total RS as glucose and 7.6% as xylose, the balance being other reducing sugars, e.g. arabinose, galactose and probably other oligomers. Finally, the ethanol production from the produced glucose was tested through fermentation process. Based on the obtained results, it was possible to propose a design for a process combining both sugars and bioethanol production. •Wheat straw hydrolysis using subcritical water.•Optimization of wheat straw hydrolysis under subcritical water condition.•Fermentation of produced glucose into bioethanol•Novel process design for wheat straw utilization.