ABSTRACT
Development of new technologies for pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass is a current research challenge. In this way, hydrodynamic cavitation (HC) was used to assist alkaline hydrogen peroxide pretreatment of sugarcane bagasse (SCB) in sequential batches (SB-HC), semi-continuous (SC-HC) and continuous (C-HC) processes. Pretreatment resulted in compositional modifications in the material, mainly regarding the cellulose and lignin contents. The released sugars after enzymatic hydrolysis resulted, on average, in 42â¯g and 32-35â¯g of glucose per 100â¯g of SCB for samples treated in B-HC (10â¯min of process) and SC-HC process (7.5â¯min residence time), respectively. In C-HC process, with an average residence time of 7.5â¯min and 3.75â¯min, 38-46â¯g and 32-38â¯g of glucose per 100â¯g of SCB were obtained respectively in enzymatic hydrolysis step. HC technology was shown as a promising alternative for pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass in all evaluated configurations aiming to produce high value bioproducts.