Optimization of combined pre-treatments on sugarcane leaves for bioethanol production

Abstract

This paper reports the comparison of an optimized pretreatment model for Reducing Sugar (RS) production from Sugarcane leaf (SL) using NaOH to depolymerize of lignocellulosic biomass. The addition variables for a pretreatment model consisted of NaOH concentrations, heating temperatures and pretreatment times in the variety of 1-2% (v/v), 30-40 °C and 1-3 days individually. After pretreatment RS was estimated to transform into energy, both of RS and the energy were optimized by Respond surface methodology (RSM) on Central composite design (CCD). The models showed high determinational coefficients (R2) above 0.9876. Process optimization provided highest RS yield and energy of 5.632 g/L and 90.112 kJ/L. for NaOH pretreatment at condition 2% (v/v) NaOH, low temperature (40 °C) for 3 days. This report presented demonstrate that sugarcane leaf waste which is usually burnt after harvesting can be a part of renewable source for the biofuel production.