The efficient removal
of silica from rice straw and separation
of its major components is essential for further valorization to produce
value-added products. With regard to this, the isolation of cellulose
(CEL), hemicellulose (HEM), and lignin (LIG) is imperative but quite
challenging. Among several pretreatments of lignocellulosic biomass,
the organosolv approach is deemed as one of the promising methods.
Here, we present two different two-step approaches for the removal
of silica and disintegration of significant components from rice straw,
especially CEL; (i) base pretreatment, followed by organosolv treatment
in the presence of organic acid, and (ii) organosolv pretreatment
in the presence of organic acid, followed by base treatment. After
each treatment, the recovered solid components are confirmed by various
characterization techniques such as Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy,
X-ray diffraction, field emission scanning electron microscopy, and
thermogravimetric analysis. Method 2 demonstrates 82% total removal
of HEM and LIG along with 90.4% of silica removal from rice straw
to obtain CEL. Furthermore, the obtained crude CEL is found to be
with a purity of 78%. Excellent removal of silica (90.4%) reflects
that in a test study, the crude CEL obtained from method 2 gives a
higher yield of butyl glucosides (59.6%) than rice straw, which affords
45.0% of butyl glucosides.