catalyzed modified clean fractionation of switchgrass

switchgrass was used as a lignocellulosic feedstock for second generation ethanol production, after pretreatment using sulfuric acid-catalyzed modified clean fractionation based on nrel’s (national renewable energy laboratory) original procedure. optimization of temperature, catalyst concentration and solvent composition was performed using response surface methodology, and 59.03 ± 7.01% lignin recovery, 84.85 ± 1.34% glucose, and 44.11 ± 3.44% aqueous fraction xylose yields were obtained at 140.00 °c, 0.46% w/w catalyst concentration, 36.71% w/w ethyl acetate concentration, and 25.00% w/w ethanol concentration. the cellulose fraction did not inhibit the fermentation performance of saccharomyces cerevisiae and resulted in an ethanol yield of 89.60 ± 2.1%.