Hot water prehydrolysis of Juncao unlocks its potential for biorefinery

Juncao is an emerging lignocellulosic biomass with strong potential as a feedstock for integrated biorefineries, such as the prehydrolysis kraft (PHK) process for the production of high-quality cellulose and other co-products. In such a process, the prehydrolysis to remove hemicelluloses is a critical step. In this study, we systematically investigated the hot water prehydrolysis of Juncao. Box-Behnken design combined with response surface methodology (RSM) was employed. The results demonstrate that the hemicelluloses can be selectively and effectively removed using this process. The practical optimum was obtained at 170 °C for 83 min with a liquid-to-solid ratio of 3. Under these conditions, cellulose retention reached 88.25%, while hemicellulose removal achieved 58.01%. Overall, this study highlights Juncao as a highly promising lignocellulosic feedstock for the production of high- quality cellulose following the integrated biorefinery concept and supports that hot water prehydrolysis is a selective/efficient process for removing hemicellulose.