I.

Agro-Industrial and Agricultural

 Millions of tons of agricultural wastes are produced each year. Considering the monetary
development and environmental protection, there is a growing need and value for the
valorization of wastes (Bian at al., 2019). Lignocellusolic biomass, made up of wood,
grass, industrial waste and agricultural residue is the most abundant and renewable
resources in the world, with an estimated 10-50 billions of this plants dry matter annually
(Öner er al,. 2015). Due to the higher cost of wood- based cellulose resources, recent
scientific and technological advances in the area of new materials have highlighted the
importance of using agricultural waste as a raw material resources, particularly in
developing countries with a large-cultural production (Bian et al., 2019).

II. Locally Available

 Due to its abundant, clean, renewable, cost- effective and environmentally friendly
characteristics, lignocellulose is considered a promising alternative that can be
derived from many high- value compounds such as cell protein, oil, viscose ray,
xylonic acid, cellulose nitrate, cellulose acetate, cellulose nanocrystals, nanofibrillated
cellulose, short-chain fatty acids and bio-ethanol (Wang et al., 2019). As a common
type of lignocellulose, due to its high quality and high quantity, the corn (maize)
stover attracted considerable attention. However, less then 10% of maize stover are
processed for industrial production, animal feed and bedding, most of which are left
unused, optionally disposed or burned directly(Kim and Dale, 2004). Thereby,
wasting resources, polluting the environment and directly damaging the soil
ecosystem. Developing effective methods for the use of maize stovers would open the
door to tackling the energy and energy crisis. A three-dimensional and highly
crystalline structure consisting of cellulose, lignin and hemicellulose in maize
stover(Wang et al,. 2019), efficient and cost- effective in conversion of cellulose to
cellulose acetate.

III. Studies about Corn Stover

 There is an urgent need for efficient use corn stovers due to the high yield and
improper used of it. Efficient and cost-effective hydrolysis of cellulose and
hemicellulose into monosaccharide is the crucial and challengeable step for corn
stover utilization. Twin-screw extrusion pretreatment changed the particle size
distribution and spatial structure of corn stover samples, but had basically no effects
on their chemical structure(Wang et al., 2019). In other study, they explore the
synergetic effects of freshly harvested maize stover and excessively wilted maize
stover on the ensiling process and their impact on anaerobic digestibility, which was
evaluated by the biomethane potential(BMP) test(Sun et al., 2019).
IV. Cellulose Extraction
Corn Stover is one of the most abundant, cheapest and readily available resources in
the range of renewable materials(Park et al,. 2018). Hemicellulose has covalent
bonds with lignin- forming lignin carbohydrate complex and cellulose-associated
complexes, witch play an important role in preventing cellulose enzymatic
hydrolysis. In pretreatment with orgsnosolv, ethanol is used as a catalytic solvent
for pretreatment with biomas. Ethanol pretreatment is known as an effective
method of pretreatment for delignification and improves enzymatic hydrolysis. As
lignin is removed, increased enzymatic hydrolysis is typically observed. The process
of organosolv pretreatment was evaluated by comparing the reaction time and
temperature and by changing the concentration of hydrogen peroxide added to the
ethanol solution(Park et al,. 2018). After cleaning, the corn stover was ground,
passed through a sieve(50-100 mesh) and dried at 45◦C prior to storage. The
chemical composition of corn stover was analyzed to contain 34.2 wt % cellulose,
22.4% hemicellulose and 13.3% acid-insoluble lignin.

Initially, the biomass is heated to 130 ° C with steam and then mixed with ethanol
(50/50 per cent) in a 5:1 dry-weight biomass ratio. Sulfuric acid, 1.75 % (w/w) to
dry biomass weight, is added as catalyst to the process, allowing the use of milder
temperature in the pretreatment reactor (R1) and shorter residence times (Zhang et
al. 2016). The pretreatment reactions are carried out at 180 °C and 27.2 atm for 40.
Following the pretreatment reactor, the pressure is released and the biomass is
filtered (F1) to obtain two streams, a pulp stream rich in solids and one liquid
stream. The pulp stream, with high content of cellulose, is washed in a two-step
process. The first washing step (W1) is done with ethanol solvent, in a ratio of 2:1 to
the pulp weight to recover part of the ethanol soluble lignin (EOL) and the solvent
drenched in the biomass. The second washing stage (W2) is done with water in a
ratio of 2:1 in order to recover the remaining solvent present in the pulp stream.
The solid stream is then sent to a mixing tank (T1) before hydrolysis and
fermentation take place. The liquid stream from the pretreatment reactor is rich in
lignin, hemicellulose, water and ethanol. To start the solvent recovering process, the
liquid stream is flashed (FL1). The top stream has a high amount of solvent ethanol
and water. The bottom stream is mixed with the washing liquids and more water is
added to precipitate the lignin in the precipitation tank (P1). The material is filtered
(F2) to remove the lignin and the remaining liquids are sent to a distillation column
(C1) to recover the remaining ethanol as distillate.
 Sugarcane Bagasse Pretreatment Methods for Ethanol Production

By Saleh Sabiha-Hanim and Nurul Asyikin Abd Halim

The ethanol organosolv process is among the chemical pretreatment being studied
for the conversion of SCB to ethanol. In this pretreatment, high degrees of
delignification can be achieved for SCB following ethanol organosolv pretreatment
using formic acid as a catalyst. The degree of delignification increased with
increasing pretreatment temperature. The maximum degree of delignification of
sugarcane bagasse reached 80% at 210°C [68]. Mesa et al. [69] reported that the
combination of a dilute-acid pretreatment followed by the organosolv pretreatment
with NaOH at a temperature of 195°C for 60 min using 30% (v/v) was an efficient
technique for SCB fractionation for the subsequent use on the enzymatic hydrolysis
process, since yielded a residual solid material containing 67.3% (w/w) glucose.
Novo et al. [70] showed that one of the best pretreatment conditions for lignin
removal from SCB by the organosolv method could be achieved at 190°C and
150 min.

Beside ethanol, glycerol is an excellent solvent for organosolv pretreatment [71].

Glycerol, a high-boiling-point organic solvent derived from the oleochemical
industry as a by-product has become very attractive. Martı́n et al. [72] studied the
effect of glycerol pretreatment on the main components of SCB. The result shows
that the glycerol acted more selectively on lignin than on xylan where cellulose was
almost completely recovered in the pretreated solids, accounting for 72% (g/g) of
the pretreated substrate. Meanwhile, Novo et al. [70] reported that the glycerol
pretreatment attained good cellulose preservation (>91%) and 80% lignin removal.
However, Zhang et al. [73] found that >96% of the cellulose was recovered, whereas
the lignin and hemicellulose removal were almost 60 and 80%, respectively, when
SCB was treated with an acid-catalyzed glycerol organosolv pretreatment.

V. Acetylation

VI. Solubility of Solvent

Reference:
1. Lignocellulosic nanofibrils produced using wheat straw and their pulping solid
residue: From agricultural waste to cellulose nanomaterials.

2. Bioaugmentation with Clostridium thermocellum to enhance the anaerobic

biodegradation of lignocellulosic agricultural residues.

3. Enhancing enzymatic hydrolysis of corn stover by twin-screw extrusion

pretreatment

4. Kim, S., Dale, B.E., 2004. Global potential bioethanol production from wasted
crops and crop residues. Biomass Bioenerg. 26 (4), 361–375.

5. Synergetic effect of combined ensiling of freshly harvested and excessively wilted

maize stover for efficient biogas production