Parinaz Nasirian - Department of food engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, Ahwaz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Ahwaz, Khoozestan, Iran
Nima Nasirian - Department of Agricultural Mechanization and Biosystem Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, Shoushtar Branch,Islamic Azad University, Shoushtar, Khoozestan, Iran
Roya Zekavati - Department of Microbiology, Faculty of nursing and midwifery, Ahwaz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Ahwaz,Khoozestan, Iran

Lignocellulosic biomass contains 70-80% carbohydrates. If properly hydrolyzed, these carbohydrates can be considered as an ideal feedstock for biofuel and value-added chemical production. In this research, the influence of heating time (5-180 min) and acid nitric concentration (0.5-10%) was examined on the hydrolysis (fermentable sugars) of sugarcanebagasse substrate at 121 °C and the optimized values were determined by response surface methodology (RSM). The acid concentration of 4.14% and heating time of 142.8 min were found as the optimum conditions for releasing of reducing sugar from acid nitric hydrolysis process. At the above optimum conditions, the amount of released reducing sugar in hydrolysate was 30.74 g/L. This study shows that diluted acid nitric can be an effective hydrolysis methodfor improving biodegradability of sugarcane bagasse substrates and their utilization in food and fuel industries as the cheap and abundant agricultural waste feedstock.

Sugarcane bagasse, Acid pretreatment, reducing sugar, Biodegradability, Hydrolysis