Optimization of soaking in aqueous ammonia pretreatment of canola residues for sugar production

당 생산을 위한 카놀라 부산물의 암모니아 침지 전처리 공정의 최적화

Bioenergy production from lignocellulosic biomass and agriculture wastes have been attracted because of its sustainable and non-edible source. Especially, canola is considered as one of the best feedstock for renewable fuel production. Oil extracted canola and its agriculture residues are reuseable for bioethanol production. However, a pretreatment step is required before enzymatic hydrolysis to disrupt recalcitrant lignocellulosic matrix. To increase the sugar conversion, more efficient pretreatment process was necessary for removal of saccharification barriers such as lignin. Alkaline pretreatment makes the lignocellulose swollen through solvation and induces more porous structure for enzyme access. In our previous work, aqueous ammonia (1~20%) was utilized for alkaline reagent to increase the crystallinity of canola residues pretreatment. In this study, significant factors for efficient soaking in aqueous ammonia pretreatment on canola residues was optimized by using the response surface method (RSM). Based on the fundamental experiments, the real values of factors at the center (0) were determined as follows; $70^{\circ}C$ of temperature, 17.5% of ammonia concentration and 18 h of reaction time in the experiment design using central composition design (CCD). A statistical model predicted that the highest removal yield of lignin was 54% at the following optimized reaction conditions: $72.68^{\circ}C$ of temperature, 18.30% of ammonia concentration and 18.30 h of reaction time. Finally, maximum theoretical yields of soaking in aqueous ammonia pretreatment were 42.23% of glucose and 22.68% of xylose.