• Carbon letters
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2016

Lignocellulosic biomass conversion to biofuels such as ethanol and other value-added bio-products including activated carbons has attracted much attention. The development of an efficient, cost-effective, and eco-friendly pretreatment process is a major challenge in lignocellulosic biomass to biofuel conversion. Although several modern pretreatment technologies have been introduced, few promising technologies have been reported. Microwave irradiation or microwave-assisted methods (physical and chemical) for pretreatment (disintegration) of biomass have been gaining popularity over the last few years owing to their high heating efficiency, lower energy requirements, and easy operation. Acid and alkali pretreatments assisted by microwave heating meanwhile have been widely used for different types of lignocellulosic biomass conversion. Additional advantages of microwave-based pretreatments include faster treatment time, selective processing, instantaneous control, and acceleration of the reaction rate. The present review provides insights into the current research and advantages of using microwave-assisted pretreatment technologies for the conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to fermentable sugars in the process of cellulosic ethanol production.

• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.137-148
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• 2010

The high costs for ethanol production with lignocellulosic biomass as a second generation energy materials currently deter commercialization of lignocellulosic biomass, especially wood biomass which is considered as the most recalcitrant material for enzymatic hydrolysis mainly due to the high lignified structure and the nature of the lignin component. Therefore, overcoming recalcitrance of lignocellulosic biomass for converting carbohydrates into sugar that can subsequently be converted into biobased fuels and biobased products is the primary technical and economic challenge for bioconversion process. This study was mainly reviewed on the research trend of the enhancement of enzymatic hydrolysis for lignocellulosic biomass after pretreatment in bioethanol production process.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.7-12
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• 1994

In recent years, the municipal wastes recognized resources. This study was performed to survey the changes of main components of the pretreated(chemical, physical) lignocellulosic biomass. The result can be summerized as follows; In pulp fiber composition, newsprint and corrugating container were mainly consist of softwood fiber(tracheid). But computer print out and magazine had a large amount of hardwood fiber(wood fiber). And, carbohydrate content in the various lignocellulosic biomass increases as the following orders : Magazine < Newsprint < Corrugating container < Computer print out. In the chemical pretreatments for the delignification, sodium hypochlorite pretreatment was more effective than sodium hydroxide. By washing, ash content of lignocellulosic biomass was decreased. Physical pretreatments were less effective than chemical pretreatment for the delignification. On the other hand, in physical pretreatments, ash content of lignocellulosic biomass was the same tendency as in the chemical pretreatments.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.274-286
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• 2009

Lignocellulosic biomass is the most abundant raw material for bioconversion in many country. However the high costs for pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis currently deter commercialization of lignocellulosic biomass, especially wood biomass which is considered as the most recalcitrant material for enzymatic hydrolysis mainly due to the high lignified structure and the nature of the lignin component. Therefore, overcoming recalcitrance of lignocellulosic biomass for converting carbohydrates into intermediates that can subsequently be converted into biobased fuels and biobased products is the primary technical and economic challenge for bioconversion process. This study was mainly reviewed on the research trend of pretreatment with lignocellulosic biomass in bioethanol production process.

• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.183-194
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• 2011

This study reviewed on the research trend of sources and utilization of the byproducts(Lignin) from bioethanol production process with lignocellulosic biomass such as wood, agri-processing by-products(corn fiber, sugarcane bagasse etc.) and energy crops(switch grass, poplar, Miscanthus etc.). During biochemical conversion process, only Cellulose and hemicellulosic fractions are converted into fermentable sugar, but lignin which represents the third largest fraction of lignocellulosic biomass is not convertible into fermentable sugars. It is therefore extremely important to recover and convert biomass-derived Lignin into high-value products to maintain economic competitiveness of cellulosic ethanol processes. It was introduced that lignin types and characteristics were different from various isolation methods and biomass sources. Also utilization and potentiality for market of those were discussed.

• Journal of Korea Technical Association of The Pulp and Paper Industry
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• v.42 no.5
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• pp.1-14
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• 2010

Bio-ethanol is a promising alternative energy source for reducing both consumption of crude oil and environmental pollution from renewable resources like lignocellulosic biomass such as wood, forest residuals, agricultural leftovers and urban wastes. Based on current technologies, the cost of ethanol production from lignocellulosic materials is relatively high, and the main challenges are the low yield and high cost of the hydrolysis process. Development of more efficient pretreatment technology (physical, chemical, physico-chemical, and biological pretreatment), integration of several microbiological conversions into fewer reactors, and increasing ethanol production capacity may decrease specific investment for ethanol producing plants. The purpose of pretreatment of lignocellulosic material is to improve the accessible surface area of cellulose for hydrolytic enzymes and enhance the conversion of cellulose to glucose and finally high yield ethanol production which is economic and environmental friendly.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.53 no.2
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• pp.216-223
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• 2015

The present work explores the potential of wet air oxidation (WAO) for pretreatment of mixed lignocellulosic biomass to enhance enzymatic convertibility. Rice husk and wheat straw mixture (1:1 mass ratio) was used as a model mixed lignocellulosic biomass. Post-WAO treatment, cellulose recovery in the solid fraction was in the range of 86% to 99%, accompanied by a significant increase in enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose present in the solid fraction. The highest enzymatic conversion efficiency, 63% (by weight), was achieved for the mixed biomass pretreated at $195^{\circ}C$, 5 bar, 10 minutes compared to only 19% in the untreated biomass. The pretreatment under the aforesaid condition also facilitated 52% lignin removal and 67% hemicellulose solubilization. A statistical design of experiments on WAO process conditions was conducted to understand the effect of process parameters on pretreatment, and the predicted responses were found to be in close agreement with the experimental data. Enzymatic hydrolysis experiments with WAO liquid fraction as diluent showed favorable results with sugar enhancement up to $10.4gL^{-1}$.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.1-5
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• 2015

This study is to investigate the effect of torrefaction on enzymatic hydrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass for bio-ethanol production. As a pretreatment, the torrefaction of lignocellulosic biomass was conducted in temperature of $250{\sim}350^{\circ}C$ in the absence of oxygen. Tween-80, nonionic surfactant, was tested to enhance saccharification efficiency by coping with hydrophobicity resulted from torrefaction. As a result, the glucose production from enzymatic hydrolysis of biomass pretreated by torrefaction was greater than that obtained from the non-pretreated biomass. Sugar conversion was higher when the biomass was saccharified with addition of tween-80. It was found that torrefaction can be applied as a preptreatment for lignocellulosic biomass and tween-80 is needed to enhance its enzyme saccharification.

• Journal of Korea Technical Association of The Pulp and Paper Industry
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• v.42 no.5
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• pp.15-23
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• 2010

Bio-ethanol is the most potential next generation automotive fuel for reducing both consumption of crude oil and environmental pollution from renewable resources such as wood, forest residuals, agricultural leftovers and urban wastes. Lignocellulosic based materials can be broken down into individual sugars. Therefore, saccharification is one of the important steps for producing sugars, such as 6-C glucose, galactose, mannose and 5-C xylose, mannose and rhamnose. These sugars can be further broken down and fermented into ethanol. The main objective of this research is to study the feasibility and optimize saccharification and fermentation process for the conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to low cost bioethanol.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.44 no.5
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• pp.622-628
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• 2016

This study investigated to understand the trend of international commercializing technologies and industrial status of the transportation biofuel based on lignocellulosic biomass. Two major commercializing technologies for the lignocellulosic biofuel are biochemical conversion technology and thermochemical conversion technology. It was reported that a total of 93 industrial companies were using lignocellulosic biomass of all facilities related to advanced biofuel. On the basis of commercial type, the biochemical conversion technology was identified to be the major technology in the lignocellulosic biofuel industries, showing 84% of all. Also the main products of commercial type industrial companies are bioethanol (1,155,000 tons/yr) and bio-oil (120,000 tons/yr), which are in a remarkably inadequate amount to substitute for the transportation biofuel worldwide. It was suggested that the transportation biofuel market was currently in need of further development in both technology and scale, and was in high demands of technological development and commercializing exertion.