Abstract

SAUCEDO-LUNA, J.; CASTRO-MONTOYA, A. J.; RICO, J. L.  and  CAMPOS-GARCIA, J.. Optimization of acid hydrolysis of bagasse from Agave tequilana Weber. Rev. Mex. Ing. Quím [online]. 2010, vol.9, n.1, pp.91-97. ISSN 1665-2738.

The bagasse of Agave tequilana Weber is a lignocellulosic residue resulting from the production of tequila. At present, the bagasse is not industrialized, and poses a serious contamination problem. Thus, an ongoing research effort is to explore the possibility to obtain added value chemicals from it. The aim of the present work was to determine the effect of temperature, concentration of H₂ SO₄ and reaction time on the hydrolysis of agave bagasse to produce fermentable sugars. The hydrolysis was performed in two sequential batch stages: (a) in the first stage the optimal conditions were 151ºC, 2% of sulfuric acid and 10 min of reaction, yielding 236 g/Kg dry matter and concentration of 26.9g/L of fermentable sugars, and (b) in second stage the optimal experimental conditions for the depolimerization of the biomass resulting from the first stage were 175º C, 2% of sulfuric acid and 30 min of reaction, yielding 90 g/kg dry matter and concentration of 15 g/L of fermentable sugars. Total fermentable sugars yield from the sequential batch stages was 326 g/kg dry matter (48.50% of the theoretical value).

Keywords : agave bagasse; dilute-acid hydrolysis; optimization.

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