Behavior of cellulose and xylan in aqueous ammonia pretreatment.

The effect of aqueous ammonia on the solubilization of cellulose and xylans was investigated by detecting the amounts of reducing sugars and monosaccharides in the treatment liquors. The degree of cellulose and xylan solubilization increased with the increase of treatment temperature. When the treatment temperature increased from 20 to 90 °C, the amounts of reducing sugars released from Avicel and cellulose fiber by 21 % ammonia at a solid to liquid ratio of 1:10 for 24 h increased from 1.