Steam explosion pretreatment of willow grown on phytomanaged soils for bioethanol production

A steam explosion (SE) process was evaluated as a pretreatment method to achieve simultaneously the pretreatment and the decontamination of trace elements (TE) from woody biomass for bioethanol applications. The willow biomass used in this study was obtained from short rotation coppice phyto-managed plots harvested on a TE-contaminated soils (Zn, Mn). The influence of the SE reaction severity on the composition of the cellulosic pulp and on the TE extraction in the water effluent was investigated. SE performed at 220 degrees C after a 2% sulfuric acid presoaking allowed an extraction of similar to 80% of Mn and Zn in the water effluent. The enzymatic hydrolysis of the resulting pulps was examined. A cellulose-to-glucose conversion of (similar to)80% was obtained after 75 h of incubation of the pulp obtained after a SE treatment performed at 180 degrees C. The subsequent fermentation into ethanol using Saccharomyces cerevisiae was successfully performed. No significant influence of TEs on the action of the biocatalysts (enzymes and yeast) was observed.