Enzymatic digestion of alkaline-sulfite pretreated sugar cane bagasse and its correlation with the chemical and structural changes occurring during the pretreatment step.

Sugar cane bagasse is recalcitrant to enzymatic digestion, which hinders the efficient conversion of its polysaccharides into fermentable sugars. Alkaline-sulfite pretreatment was used to overcome the sugar cane bagasse recalcitrance. Chemical and structural changes that occurred during the pretreatment were correlated with the efficiency of the enzymatic digestion of the polysaccharides.