**4. Conclusions**

fermentation step to ethanol. For fuel ethanol production, hemicelluloses are commonly removed during the initial stage of biomass processing aiming to reduce structural constraints for further enzymatic cellulose hydrolysis. Lignin affects the enzymatic hydrolysis of ligno‐ cellulosic biomass because it forms a physical barrier to attack by enzymes. The removal of hemicelluloses and lignin through pretreatment is very helpful to make the cellulose accessible

10 Sustainable Degradation of Lignocellulosic Biomass - Techniques, Applications and Commercialization

5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45

49.8

55.2

Bamboo Bamboo-H2SO4 Bamboo-NaOH

Bamboo Bamboo-H2SO4 Bamboo-NaOH

Diffration agale (degree)

to hydrolysis for conversion to fuels.

0

**Figure 5.** XRD curve of untreated and pretreated bamboo

0

**Figure 6.** The cellulose crystallinity of untreated and pretreated bamboo

10

20

30

Cellulose crystallinity (%)

40

50

44.4

Intensity

It can be concluded from this research that hemicelluloses and lignin of bamboo are removed by H2SO4 and NaOH pretreatment. The number of most chemical groups on the bamboo-H2SO4 sample surface is more than that of bamboo surface, except for absorption of C=O stretching vibration, which indicates hemicelluloses removal of bamboo through H2SO4 pretreatment. The number of all chemical groups on the bamboo-NaOH sample surface is less than that of bamboo surface, which expresses hemicelluloses and lignin removal of bamboo through NaOH pretreatment. The relative crystallinity of bamboo-H2SO4 and bamboo-NaOH samples is 49.8% and 55.2%, respectively. The substrate content of NaOH pretreatment (64.1%) is lower than that of H2SO4 pretreatment (70.3%).This phenomenon further confirms that NaOH pretreatment is better than H2SO4 pretreatment. This research represents an initial stage in the study of bamboo bioethanol and may provide guidelines for further research, such as substrate hydrolysis, biofuels synthesis, etc.

## **Acknowledgements**

This research was financially supported by '12th Five Years Plan-Study on manufacturing technology of functional bamboo (rattan)-based materials' (Grant No. 2012BAD54G01) and 'Basic Scientific Research Funds of International Centre for Bamboo and Rattan' (Grant No. 1632012002).
