A novel surfactant-assisted dilute phosphoric acid plus steam explosion pretreatment of poplar wood for fermentable sugar production

Abstract Pretreatment is an indispensable process in lignocellulosic bioethanol production. In this work, a surfactant agent JFC was introduced into the dilute phosphoric acid plus steam explosion pretreatment scheme for fermentable sugar production using poplar as substrate. Four crucial factors (phosphoric acid concentration, surfactant concentration, pressure, and residence time) affecting the pretreatment efficiency were optimized using the single factor tests. The optimal parameters obtained were as follows: 1:2.5 solid/liquid rate, 2 h pre-soaking time, 1.5 %(v/v) JFC-M + 2.0 wt% phosphoric acid, 2.0 MPa pressure, and 120 s residence time, resulting in a maximum cellulose recovery rate of 86.33 % and enzymatic saccharification rate of 84.62 %, which was 38.97 % higher than that of control. The morphological and structural characteristics of samples before and after pretreatment, were characterized by the scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) method. The addition of JFC-M was of a notable influence in overcoming biomass recalcitrance and boosting cellulose digestion, showing great application potentials in biomass conversion process.