(644c) Hydrothermolysis of Agricultural Waste

Some agricultural wastes such as wheat straw, bagasse and corncob were treated using a hot-compressed water-flow type reactor to obtain sugar solution as a feedstock for alcohol fermentation. Bagasse gave higher sugar yield than wheat straw, and the obtained sugar solutions were mainly composed of glucose, xylose, arabinose, xylobiose and cellobiose. On the other hand, corncob gave the highest sugar yield and included a lot of sucrose and fructose. The formation of furfural and HMF, which are known as inhibitors for alcohol fermentation, became remarkable when the temperature of hot water was over 260°C. The residue yield of each sample at a 260 °C-treatment was 25.9 wt% for wheat straw, 26.2 for bagasse, and 15.3 for corncob, respectively.