Basic concept
Rice straw consists of three main components, cellulose, hemicellulose
and lignin. Technologies for conversion of this feedstock
to ethanol have been developed on two platforms, which can be referred
to as the sugar platform and the synthesis gas (or syngas)
platform. The basic steps of these platforms are shown in Fig. 1.
In sugar platform, cellulose and hemicellulose are first converted
to fermentable sugars, which then are fermented to produce ethanol.
The fermentable sugars include glucose, xylose, arabinose, galactose,
and mannose. Hydrolysis of cellulose and hemicellulose to
generate these sugars can be carried out by using either acids or
enzymes (Drapcho et al., 2008).