Pretreatment and fractionation of corn stover by S.E.A.A. (soaking in ethanol and aqueous ammonia)

Abstract

Soaking in Aqueous Ammonia (SAA) has been proven to be an effective pretreatment method for lignocellulosic biomass. A modification of the SAA method, a Soaking in Ethanol and Aqueous Ammonia method, to reduce the loss of xylan due to solubilization was studied. In this method, ethanol was added to the aqueous ammonia solution. The presence of ethanol caused re-precipitation of the previously solubilized xylan onto the solid matrix. Thus, more xylan is available for conversion to ethanol. The ethanol used in the pretreatment process can be recovered and recycled. In addition to increased availability of the carbohydrates for ethanol production, the solubilized lignin theoretically can be recovered in relatively pure form and converted to high-value products. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the AIChE Annual Meeting (Salt Lake, UT 11/4-9/2007).