The Effect of Sugarcane Bagassès Size on the Properties of Pretreatment and Enzymatic Hydrolysis

The influence of milled bagasse particle size on their reducing sugar and lignin content during dilute acid hydrolysis followed by enzymolysis was investigated. The biomass crystal structures of hydrolyzed residues and enzymolyzed substrates were studied with X-ray diffractometry (XRD). The results showed that the conversion ratio of reducing sugar declined with decreasing milled bagasse particle size. The conversion ratio of reducing sugar after acid hydrolysis decreased from 31.3% to 28.9%. The smaller of the milled bagasse particle size was, the higher of the klason lignin content of hydrolyzed residuals was, which resulted in a decline in conversion ratio of reducing sugar during enzymolysis. In this study, the optimal size of milled bagasse particles was 10 to 20 meshes. The total reducing sugar conversion ratio was 61.5%, consisting of 31.3% in hydrolysis and 30.2% in enzymolysis. After hydrolysis, the specific surface area and pore size increased, and the fiber length was shortened. The inner microfiber bundles were exposed, which improved the accessibility of cellulase and the efficiency of enzymolysis.