Pulsed Electric Field Pretreatment of Flax Straw: The Effect of Particle Size †.

Biofuels are a clean source of energy and they are produced from cheap and renewable sources such as lignocellulose biomass. Lignocellulose biomass composition and structure affect its hydrolysis to fermentable sugars. This is due to the cellulose crystallinity and the presence of non-hydrolyzed lignin. As a result, the obtained biofuels are of a low yield. A pretreatment step can be added before the hydrolysis to delignify and decrease the crystallinity of lignocellulose biomass. Pulsed electric field was found to increase the permeability of plants tissues. In this study, flax straw was pretreated using pulsed electric field and the yields of glucose, cellobiose, and xylose, with respect to untreated flax straw, from the hydrolysis increased by 25%, 67%, and 12%respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]