H₂SO₄-Catalyzed Hydrothermal Pretreatment of Triploid Poplar to Enhance Enzymatic Hydrolysis

Sealed structure of plant biomass resists assault on cellulose from enzymatic deconstruction. In this study, pretreatments of triploid poplar were conducted with 0.5 wt % H 2 SO 4 at various temperatures (100–200 °C) to loosen the intricate structure. The effect of temperature on cellulose structure and enzymatic digestibility was evaluated. The results indicated that the effective removal of hemicelluloses and amorphous cellulose incurred the increment of crystalline indices of residues. Companied with the degradation of carbohydrates, inhibitory compounds were accumulated with the increasing severity. On the whole, 120 °C was considered as the optimum temperature by taking the balance between substrate digestibility and recovery into account.