Pressurized microwave-assisted hydrothermal treatment with various salts for efficient production of monosaccharides from rice straw.

This study proposed a two-stage pressurized microwave hydrothermal treatment with a catalyst, followed by enzymatic saccharification, as a pretreatment method for efficiently converting cellulose and hemicellulose from rice straw into glucose and xylose. The use of various inorganic salts and dilute sulfuric acid as catalysts enhances sugar production. Using 1 wt% sulfuric acid as a catalyst at 150 °C for 5 min for the first-stage and then 180 °C for 5 min for the second-stage yielded the highest sugar production from rice straw compared with other inorganic salts tested.