The effects of chemical pretreatment on cellulose digestion by a cellulolytic anaerobe,
Ruminococcus albus, were examined. Pretreatment with H
3PO
4 was the most effective for digestion of crystalline cellulose by
R. albus of the four pretreatment methods investigated. The best condition for pretreatment of Avicel with H
3PO
4 was as follows; H
3PO
4 concentration: 85-100 (v/v)%; treatment time: over 5 min; treatment temperature: 0°C at 85 (v/v)% H
3PO
4 or 0-60°C at 95 (v/v)% H
3PO
4; cellulose concentration: 1-3 (w/w)%. Treatment efficiencies did not decrease after five repeated uses of H
3PO
4. For effective digestion of newspaper or rice straw, delignification was essential in addition to swelling with H
3PO
4. For newspaper and rice straw which were cryomilled, delignified and swollen with H
3PO
4, specific cellulose digestion rates by
R. albus were 0.081 and 0.099 g cellulose/g dry cells/hr, respectively.
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