A modified twin-screw extruder incorporated with a
filtration device was used as a liquid/solid separator
for xylose removal from steam exploded corncobs. A face centered central composite design was used to
study the combined effects of various enzymatic hydrolysis process variables (enzyme loading,
surfactant addition, and hydrolysis time) with two differently extruded corncobs (7% xylose removal, 80%
xylose removal) on glucose conversion. The results showed that the extrusion process led to an increase
in cellulose crystallinity, while structural changes could also be observed via SEM. A quadratic polynomial
model was developed for predicting the glucose conversion and the
fitted model provided an adequate
approximation of the true response as verified by the analysis of variance (ANOVA).
ã 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND