초록
<P><B>Abstract</B></P> <P>Two different plants namely <I>Phoenix canariensis</I> and <I>Opuntia ficus-indica</I> were used as substrate for reducing sugar generation and ethanol production. Dilute acid, alkaline and steam explosion were used as pretreatment methods in order to depolymerize lignin and/or hemicellulose and recover cellulose. By using alkaline pretreatment with 2.5% NaOH 71.08% for <I>P. canariensis</I> and 74.61% for <I>O. ficus-indica</I> lignin removal and 81.84% for <I>P. canariensis</I> and 72.66% for <I>O. ficus-indica</I> cellulose recovery yields were obtained. Pretreated materials were hydrolyzed by cellulase with high efficiency (87.0% and 84.5% cellulose conversion yields for <I>P. canariensis</I> and <I>O. ficus-indica</I>) and used as substrate for fermentation. Maximum ethanol production of 15.75g/L and 14.71g/L were achieved from <I>P. canariensis</I> and <I>O. ficus-indica</I> respectively. Structural differences were observed by XRD, FTIR and SEM for untreated, pretreated, hydrolyzed and fermented samples and were highly correlated with compositional analysis results.</P> <P><B>Highlights</B></P> <P> <UL> <LI> <I>Phoenix canariensis</I> and <I>Opuntia ficus-indica</I> are promising energy plants. </LI> <LI> Major pretreatment methods were evaluated. </LI> <LI> Maximum lignin removal and cellulose recovery was obtained by NaOH pretreatment. </LI> <LI> Lignin removal an important factor for increasing accessible sites of cellulose. </LI> <LI> Fermentation of hydrolysate resulted in 2% (v/v) ethanol. </LI> </UL> </P>