Researchers from the University of Iowa have found that “pretreating” a wide variety of feedstocks (including switch grass, corn stover, and soft wood) with ultrasound consistently facilitates their breakdown for subsequent production into fuels and chemicals. Lead researcher David Grewell and his team found that treating lignocellulosic feedstocks with ultrasound facilitated the removal of lignin with ease and thereby helping to speed up the subsequent hydrolysis of cellulose and hemicellulose into sugars. (Lignin is the chemical compound that binds cellulose and hemicellulose together in plant cell walls.) Grewell’s team also found that hydrolysis of corn starch could be greatly accelerated… Login to continue

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