Review on the Pretreatment Method and Mechanism of Lignocellulose

Due to the huge reserve, wide spread, and renewability, lignocellulose has been chosen as the alternative energy resource for fossil fuels, such as coal, petroleum and nature gas. One important way for the utilization of lignocellulose is fuel ethanol. Cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin are the main components of lignocellulose. Their close association causes physical and chemical barriers for the hydrolysis of cellulose and hemicelluloses into fermentable sugars. Therefore, the pretreatment of lignocellulose is necessary before the hydrolysis process. This paper reviewed and prospected four methods and its reaction mechanism of lignocellulose pretreatment.