Title
Improved enzymatic hydrolysis of tobacco stalk by steam explosion and thread rolling pretreatments
Authors
Y. Y. HAN J. LI B. WANG J. XU and J. ZENG

Received July 22, 2013
Published Volume 49 Issue 2 February
Keywords waste tobacco stalk, pretreatment, pectinase, enzymatic hydrolysis, galacturonic acid

Abstract
To improve the efficiency of enzymolysis, tobacco stalk was pretreated by steam explosion, the thread rolling and then it was enzyme hydrolyzed by pectinase. Hydrolysis products yields of 0.139 g g-1 and 0.127 g g-1 could be obtained by steam explosion and thread rolling, which was much higher than that for the untreated tobacco stalk (0.042 g g-1). Furthermore, SEM showed that the enzymolysis effect was remarkable, especially after pretreatment. However, there was no obvious change in the chemical structure of tobacco stalk, based on FTIR. Therefore, the pretreatment was significant and necessary for enzymolysis.