Biofuels produced from various lignocellulosic materials, such as wood, forest, or agricultural residues, have the potential to be a valuable alternative for the fossil fuels (for example, gasoline). Many physicochemical, structural and compositional factors hinder the degradation of biomass to sugars preventing its conversion to biofuel ethanol. In this study, dilute acid hydrolysis, ultrasound, and Ammonia Fiber Expansion (AFEX) were evaluated as pretreatment methods to facilitate the degradation of straws received from the CBioNetwork. Glucose yield after enzymatic hydrolysis of the pretreated straws served as the yardstick comparing the effectiveness of the pretreatments. Operational conditions of these processes (treatment temperature and time, ratio of straw to solvent, and other conditions specific to a process) were evaluated for various concentration and size of wheat, oat and barley straws as a means to predict their application in industrial settings.

This work is still in progress and the next step will be to evaluate other conditions for all straws received from the network partners.