Optimization of two-stage pretreatment from soybean hull for efficient glucose recovery

Abstract

Soybean hull is an attractive feedstock for glucose production. To increase the glucose conversion in acid hydrolysis, a pretreatment method combined steam explosion with alkali pretreatment for soybean hull was studied. For first step pretreatment, steam explosion conditions (log Ro 2.45) were optimized to obtain maximum solid recovery and cellulose content. In the second step pretreatment, the conditions for potassium hydroxide pretreatment of steam exploded soybean hull were optimized by using RSM (response surface methodology). The optimum conditions for minimum lignin content were determined to be 0.6% potassium hydroxide concentration, 70°C reaction temperature and 198 min reaction time. The predicted lignin content was 2.2% at the optimum conditions. Experimental verification of the optimum conditions gave the lignin content in similar value with the estimated value of the model. Finally, glucose conversion of pretreated soybean hull using acid hydrolysis resulted in 97.1 ± 0.4%. This research of two-step pretreatment was a promising method for increasing the glucose conversion in the cellulose-to-glucose process.