Effect of Extruder Screw Speed, Temperature, and Enzyme Levels on Sugar Recovery from Different Biomasses

Biofuels from biomass have the potential to reduce the dependency on fossil fuels. An efficient pretreatment method is required to accomplish the target of the Energy Act 2005. Extrusion could be a viable continuous pretreatment method to be explored. The objectives of the current study were to investigate the influence of screw speed and barrel temperature on sugar recovery from the selected warm season grasses and to select a suitable enzyme combination and dose for enzymatic hydrolysis. The ground, moisture-balanced biomasses were pretreated using a single screw extruder at various screw speeds (100, 150, and 200 rpm) and barrel temperatures (50, 75, 100, 150, and 200°C). Cellulase or multienzyme with β-glucosidase was varied from 1 : 1 to 1 : 4 during enzymatic hydrolysis to accomplish the second objective. Screw speed, barrel temperature, and their interaction had a significant influence on sugar recovery from the selected biomasses. A maximum of 28.2, 66.2, and 49.2% of combined sugar recoverywasachieved for switchgrass, big bluestem, prairie cord grass when pretreated at a screw speed of 200, 200, and 150 rpm and at a barrel temperature of 75, 150, and 100°C, respectively, using cellulase and β-glucosidase at a ratio of 1 : 4. Extrusion pretreatment of these biomasses used only 28–37% of the rated extruder power.