Factors affecting the pretreatment of biomass with gaseous ozone

Abstract

Treatment of a wide variety of lignocellulosic biomass with gaseous ozone results in greatly enhanced susceptibility to cellulase enzyme hydrolysis and to digestion by rumen microorganisms so that it can be used as ruminant animal feed or for the production of glucose via enzymatic hydrolysis. By use of appropriate reaction conditions a useful degree of such pretreatment may be obtained in 1–2 h contact time with an ozone consumption of ca. 4–6% of the dry weight of the biomass.