Alternative fuels such as fuels from highly abundant
plant biomass are needed to reduce current human
dependency on petroleum. One promising biofuel is
ethanol, mainly manufactured from lignocelluloses and
especially for use as fuel for automobiles (Holmgren &
Sellstedt 2008; Ozturk 2010; Ozturk et al. 2006; Shi et
al. 2009). There are several steps in the conversion of
lignocellulosics to ethanol. The pretreatment step is for
the purpose of breaking down the lignin and to release
the crystalline structure of cellulose. The hydrolysis step
uses a combination of enzymes to transform cellulose into
glucose and the fermentation step uses microbes to ferment
glucose into ethanol (Sun & Cheng 2002). Of the three
steps, pretreatment continues to be the main recalcitrant
factor to achieve an efficient and commercially viable
process in treating raw biomass. Besides, pretreatment is
often singled out as the culprit in the high cost of ethanol
production, costing almost one third of the total production
cost (NREL 2000). Therefore, it is important to find new
improved ways for the pretreatment step.