Steam Pretreatment of Rice Hulls to Release Fermentable Saccharides : An Approach to Improve Recovery of (Hemi)Cellulosic Sugars Through Multivariate Design
The conversion of rice hulls into fermentable saccharides was explored through steam pretreatment employing 2.5% SO2. The interaction between temperature and time was assessed by means of the response surface method to achieve optimum contents of C6-sugars in water-insoluble solids (WIS) and C5-sugars in the liquor. Pretreatment carried out at 218 °C for 2.3 min released liquor containing 55.4 g/L