The influence of ferrous sulfate utilization on the sugar yields from dilute-acid pretreatment of softwood for bioethanol production

By employing metal salts in dilute-acid pretreatment the severity can be reduced due to reduced activation energy. This study reports on a dilute-acid steam pretreatment of spruce chips by addition of a small amount of ferrous sulfate to the acid catalyst, i.e., either SO2, H2SO3 or H2SO4. The utilization of ferrous sulfate resulted in a slightly increased overall glucose yield (from 74% to 78% of the theoretical value) in pretreatment with SO2 and H2SO3. Impregnation with ferrous sulfate and sulfuric acid did not give any improvement compared with pretreatment based solely on H2SO4. (C) 2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd.