The pretreatment of sugarcane bagasse with lime (calcium hydroxide) is
evaluated. The effect of lime pretreatment on digestibility was studied through analyses
using central composite design (response surface), considering pretreatment time,
temperature, and lime loading as factors. The responses evaluated were the yield of
glucose from pretreated bagasse after enzymatic hydrolysis. Experiments were performed
using the bagasse as it comes from an alcohol/sugar factory (non-screened bagasse) and
bagasse in the size range from 0.248 to 1.397 mm (screened bagasse) (12-60 mesh). It was
observed that the particle size presented influence in the release of fermentable sugars after
enzymatic hydrolysis using low loading of cellulase and β-glucosidase (3.5 FPU/g dry
pretreated biomass and 1.0 IU/g dry pretreated biomass, respectively).