(651a) Introduction of Self-Steam Explosion Pretreatment Technology for Wet Biomass

The main obstacles to the widespread use of lignocellulosic biomass include its high moisture content and low grindability. Thus, we herein report a novel method, viz. the self-steam explosion (SE) method, which utilizes the moisture content of biomass to both reduce the particle size and enhance it properties. More specifically, the moisture content of the biomass sample is fully utilized as a steam resource to auto-hydrolyze the biomass component and yield fine particles with diameters < 1 mm through self-explosion. This process differs from conventional steam explosion, which mainly employs saturated steam from external resources and requires waste water treatment due to contamination of the steam, as the self-SE method offers flexibility and recyclability in terms of the heating resources required in addition to a significant reduction in wastewater production. In this study, we demonstrated this self-SE method effectively reduced the particle sizes of hardwood, softwood measuring 16–22 mm to produce fine particles. The moisture content and chips size of biomass affect the milling performance of this method. Self-SE method produces higher yield of fine particles and consumes less energy than conventional steam explosion method.