Pretreatment of Ligno-cellulosic Biomass for Biofuels and Bioproducts (AE495)

Figure 1. Schematic diagram showing the effect of pretreatment on ligno-cellulosic biomass. The primary cell wall becomes compacted by a dense lignin network structure as the plant grows and ages.This 4-page fact sheet discusses bioethanol as a renewable form of energy, explaining the importance of using ligno-cellulosic biomass to produce biofuels. It describes the pretreatment step in producing biofuels and the need for more research into this step so that ligno-cellulosic biofuels can be produced cheaply and efficiently at a commercial scale. Written by Zhaohui Tong, Nusheng Cheng, and Pratap Pullammanappallil, and published by the UF Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, January 2013.
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ae495