A two-stage pretreatment approach to maximise sugar yield and enhance reactive lignin recovery from poplar wood chips

► A 2-stage steam/organosolv pretreatment resulted in good sugar and lignin recovery. ► Close to 90% of the original xylan was recovered in a useable form. ► Close to 90% of the original cellulose could be hydrolysed at low enzyme loadings. ► The lignin recovered after 2-stage pretreatment was more reactive.