초록
<P><B>Abstract</B></P> <P>In this study, Korean <I>Miscanthus sinensis</I> was pretreated by electron beam irradiation (EBI) and then enzymatically hydrolyzed for fermentable sugar production. The total exposed energy (kGy) on <I>Miscanthus</I> which is considered as a significant factor in the pretreatment was investigated to obtain the optimal condition. As a result, total dose was determined as 500kGy at 7.4mA and 1MeV and glucose conversion was about 1.26-fold enhanced compared with control (none treatment). To enhance the enzymatic digestibility, the thermo-chemical treatments combined with EBI was performed by sulfuric acid and aqueous ammonia. The result indicates that aqueous ammonia with EBI treatment shows the highest glucose conversion (87.97%) and 32.3% of biomass to glucose recovery which is 2.4-fold enhanced than control. Finally, the hydrolysate from pretreated <I>Miscanthus</I> was utilized to ethanol production by <I>Saccharomyces cerevisiae</I> K35 and the ethanol yield was about 96.8%.</P> <P><B>Highlights</B></P> <P> <UL> <LI> Korean <I>Miscanthus</I> was pretreated by electron beam irradiation (EBI). </LI> <LI> The optimal irradiation was determined as 500kGy of total exposed energy at 7.4mA and 1MeV. </LI> <LI> The thermo-chemical treatments combined with EBI was performed. </LI> <LI> Alkali+EBI combined treatment shows the highest glucose conversion (87.97%). </LI> <LI> The ethanol yield was about 96.8% by hydrolysate from pretreated <I>Miscanthus</I>. </LI> </UL> </P>