Pretreatment of straw for bioethanol production

Pretreatment of straw for bioethanol production is estimated to account for 33% of the total cost of bioethanol production. The selection of an appropriate pre-treatment technique remains one of the major challenges in developing economically viable technologies for bioethanol production from straw. Several pre-treatment techniques have been considered by different workers including mechanical pre-treatment, irradiation, chemical, fungal and hot water treatment. Review of available pre-treatment techniques and the factors that are most relevant in the choice of an appropriate pre-treatment can play an important role in increasing the efficiency of bioethanol production.