4. Conclusions
This study showed that sodium hydroxide pretreatment at
121 C was effective in improving the digestibility of CBG to enhance
reducing sugar yield. Removal of lignin from CBG was able
to facilitate the digestibility of carbohydrates. The xylan conversion
efficiency was more sensitively affected by the variation of
NaOH pretreatment conditions than glucan conversion efficiency.
However, the study of other pretreatment methods, enzyme loading
test, fermentation study, scale-up and economic analysis of the
overall conversion process is needed for further conclusions.