抄録
The authors studied an ammonia pre-treatment for cellulosic bioethanol production which has some distinctive features. We have reported two effects of this pre-treatment which improves the saccharification rate of biomass. The ester bonds were cleaved and the cellulose crystals swelled (cellulose Ill crystal structures were obtained). To optimize this pre-treatment, it will be beneficial to estimate the cleavage reaction rate as functions of temperature, pressure and time. The elution rate of hemicellulose after this pre-treatment showed correlation with the cleavage reaction rate. We then analysed the cleavage reaction by using the elution rate of hemicellulose. It was found that the elution rate of hemicellulose can be used as an indicator of the cleavage reaction.
