Enhanced Enzymatic Hydrolysis of Rice Straw Pretreated by Oxidants Assisted with Photocatalysis Technology

This work evaluated the effectiveness of rice straw pretreatment using a TiO(2)/UV system in the presence of oxidants. The effects of TiO(2) concentrations, pH and photocatalysis time were investigated. Inorganic oxidants including H(2)O(2,) K(2)S(2)O(8), and KIO(4) were added to further enhance the effect on enzymatic hydrolysis of rice straw. The TiO(2)/UV/ H(2)O(2) pretreatment showed a higher amount of released reducing sugar (8.88 ± 0.10 mg/mL, compared to 5.47 ± 0.03 mg/mL in untreated sample). Composition analyses of rice straw after the TiO(2)/UV/H(2)O(2) pretreatment showed partial lignin and hemicellulose removal. Moreover, structural features of untreated and pretreated rice straw were analyzed through FE-SEM, FT-IR, and XRD. This work suggests that H(2)O(2) is an efficient addition for photocatalysis pretreatment of rice straw.