An innovative and efficient hydrogen peroxide-citric acid pretreatment of bamboo residues to enhance enzymatic hydrolysis and ethanol production

Organic peracids has attracted widespread attention from researchers in biomass pretreatment. As a weak acid with high production, low price and toxicity, citric acid (CA) was mixed with hydrogen peroxide at the room temperature to generate peroxy-citric acid with strong oxidative functions. An innovative and efficient pre-treatment method using peroxy-citric acid (HPCA) was proposed to enhance enzymatic hydrolysis and bio-ethanol production of bamboo residues. After D. giganteus (DG) was pretreated with HPCA at 80 degrees C for 3 h, lignin of 95.36% and xylan of 55.41% was effectively removed, and the enzymatic saccharification yield of HPCA-treated DG enhanced by about 8-9 times compared with CA pretreated DG. The ethanol recovery of 17.18 g/ L was achieved. This work provided a reference for mild biomass pretreatment, which will promote the large-scale application of organic peracids system in biorefinery processes.

Automated summary

This study proposed an innovative and efficient pre-treatment method using peroxy-citric acid (HPCA) to enhance enzymatic hydrolysis and bio-ethanol production of bamboo residues. HPCA-treated bamboo residues showed significantly higher enzymatic saccharification yield compared with citric acid (CA) pretreated residues. The removal of lignin and xylan was also effectively achieved by HPCA. Ethanol recovery of 17.18 g/L was achieved. This work provides a reference for mild biomass pretreatment using organic peracids.