Carbon dioxide lignocellulose degradation

Carbon dioxide explosion is a pre-treatment process that uses supercritical carbon dioxide to break down the biomass structure. In aqueous solution, carbon dioxide forms carbonic acid which depolymerizes lignocellulosic materials. As a small molecule, carbon dioxide can penetrate into the pores of the biomass better than ammonia. When carbon dioxide explodes due to the change of pressure, it breaks the cellulosic structure. This process is usually operated under high pressure but low temperature to prevent monosaccharide degradation. But in comparison to steam explosion and ammonia explosion processes, the sugar recovery yield from this process is... 

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