Experimental study on the performance of microwave assisted Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) pretreatment of rice straw

Authors

  • Renu Singh Indian Agricultural Research Institute
  • Sapna Tiwari Centre for Environment Science and Climate Resilient Agriculture, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, 110012, India
  • Monika Srivastava Centre for Environment Science and Climate Resilient Agriculture, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, 110012, India
  • Ashish Shukla Civil Engineering, Architecture and Building (CAB), Faculty of Engineering and Computing, Coventry University, Priory Street, Coventry CV1 5FB, UK

Keywords:

Enzymatic hydrolysis, Rice straw, Biofuel, Microwave, Hydrogen peroxide

Abstract

Biofuels are essentials as they can provide impending substitute for fossil fuels.  Rice straw has gained much attention from researchers because of its usability as a potential feedstock for bioethanol production.  Pre-treatments are crucial for enzymatic hydrolysis of rice straw.  In this study, combination of microwave and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is employed for the delignification of rice straw.  The Response surface methodology is used to optimize the pretreatment conditions with respect to H2O2 concentration, microwave power and irradiation time.  Under optimum conditions, maximum reducing sugar obtained through microwave assisted H2O2 is 1,453.64 µg/mL.  The chemical and morphological analysis ascertained that the surface of the samples treated with microwave assisted H2O2 was more ruptured and has a significantly high crystalline index (63.64%) than untreated rice straw sample (52.2%).  Microwave assisted H2O2 pre-treatmentdisrupted the silicon waxy structure and broken down allether linkages between lignin and carbohydrates and thus, efficiently remove lignin.  The present study proves that microwave assisted H2O2 is an effective pretreatment technique for the conversion of rice straw into bioethanol production by enhancing enzymatic saccharification.

 

Keywords: pre-treatment, enzymatic hydrolysis, rice straw, biofuel, microwave, hydrogen peroxide

Author Biography

Renu Singh, Indian Agricultural Research Institute

Scientist(S.S)

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Published

2014-03-28

Issue

Section

IV-Energy in Agriculture