Estimation of Xylose Recovery from Lignocellulosic Biomass

Abstract

Lignocellulosic materials are potential raw materials for (bio)chemical industries due to their abundance. Its hemicellulosic content, for example, can be hydrolysed to xylose and later converted to various valuable biochemical products, e.g. xylitol. Due to the variability in characteristics and composition of the lignocellulosic materials, however, thorough research is required before the utilization of each type of lignocellulosic materials. This paper presents the development of an empirical model to estimate the yield of xylose from various lignocellulosic materials. A comprehensive literature study was conducted to build lignocellulosic database, in which the yields of xylose from various lignocellulosic materials that were processed by using different pretreatment condition were mapped. An empirical model was developed to establish a correlation between the type of lignocellulosic materials as well as the pretreatment operation condition (severity factor) and the yield of xylose. Several correction factors, such as biomass composition, lignin structure, and the succeeding hydrolysis process have been proposed to improve its accuracy.