Hydrothermal Pretreatment of Eucalyptus for Bioethanol Production

Eucalyptus is a fast-growing tree which is abandunt in the tropical area. It is expected that this tree can be effedctively converted into ethanol to meet the world demand of ethanol. However, conversion of lignocellulosics is still a developing technology. Optimization of pretreatment process in terms of rection engineering is needed. In this study, we conducted the hydrothermal pretreatment of eucalyptus using a 97-cm3 autoclave, changing reaction condition, and derived a rate equation of the hydrothermal reactions based on the simplified reaction model. The obtained result reproduced the experimental results well, and optimum condition for the eucalyptus pretreatment has been determined.