- “Pretreatment of high-crystalline cellulose with N-methyl-morpholine-N-oxide (NMO or NMMO) to improve bioethanol and biogas production was investigated.” 1
Researchers from School of Engineering, University of Borås, in Borås, Sweden; have presented an article titled: “Enhancement of ethanol and biogas production from high-crystalline cellulose by different modes of NMO pretreatment.”
The researchers from Borås, Sweden, have also noted:
- “The pretreatments were performed at 90 and 120 degrees C for 0.5-15 h in three different modes, including dissolution (85%NMO), ballooning (79%NMO) and swelling (73%NMO).”
- “The pretreated materials were then enzymatically hydrolyzed and fermented to ethanol or anaerobically digested to biogas (methane).”
- “The pretreatment at 85% NMO, 120 degrees C and 2.5 h resulted in 100% yield in the subsequent enzymatic hydrolysis and around 150% improvement in the yield of ethanol compared to the untreated and water-treated material.”
- “However, the best results of biogas production were obtained when the cellulose was treated with swelling and ballooning mode, which gave almost complete digestion in 15 days.”
- “Thus, the pretreatment resulted in 460 g ethanol or 415 L methane from each kg of cellulose.”
- “Analysis of the structure of treated and untreated celluloses showed that the dissolution mode can efficiently convert the crystalline cellulose I to cellulose II.”
- “However, it decreases the water swelling capacity of the cellulose.”
- “On the other hand, swelling and ballooning modes in NMO treatment were less efficient in both water swelling capacity and cellulose crystallinity.”
- “No cellulose loss, ambient pressure, relatively moderate conditions and high efficiency make the NMO a good alternative for pretreatment of high-crystalline cellulosic materials.”
