Hydrothermal treatment of cellulosic biomass by hot press

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K15011
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Agricultural environmental engineering/Agricultural information engineering
• Research Institution: The University of Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: Imou Kenji 東京大学, 大学院農学生命科学研究科(農学部), 教授 (40184832)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 再生可能エネルギー / バイオ燃料 / エタノール / バイオマス

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this study, hot press treatment for enzymatic saccharification of lignocellulosic biomass was evaluated. Water in the sample is kept liquid during hot press treatment and a reaction similar to hot compressed water treatment is shown under low water content around 30 %. Hot press treatment worked well on herbaceous biomass such as rice straw or erianthus. C5 sugars from hemicellulose can be recovered by a sealed reactor and reaction pressure can be lowered from 16 MPa to 4 MPa. Hot press treatment was expected to reduce energy consumption of pretreatment for enzymatic saccharification drastically because the amount water in the reactor of hot press treatment was about one twentieth of that in the reactor of hydrothermal treatment.

Free Research Field

農業機械学