Abstract Diminishing fusel alcohol content on bioethanol streams is a challenge that must be overcome to increase hydrogen (H2) yield by ethanol steam reforming (ESR). Herein, a split plot experimental design was used to assess the effect of temperature and HNO3 loadings, during the pretreatment of sugarcane press-mud for subsequent fermentation, over both ethanol and fusel alcohol content. Results showed that pretreatment temperature has an important effect on ethanol concentration during fermentation owing to the formation of reducing sugar during pretreatment. The highest both ethanol (64 g L−1) and fusel alcohol (547 mg L−1) content were obtained at 130 °C without HNO3. But, at 130 °C, the addition of 16 g HNO3 kg−1 solid reduced the ethanol and fusel alcohol concentrations by 3.5 % and 20 %, respectively. Therefore, HNO3 did have an important effect on the fusel alcohol production, but a small effect on the ethanol concentration after fermentation. Under said pretreatment conditions (i.e., 130 °C and 16 g HNO3 kg−1 solid), a possible production of 5.46 g H2 kg−1 of sugarcane press-mud was calculated from mass balance and empirical correlations. Therefore, the addition of HNO3 during biomass pretreatment could enhance further H2 production by ESR.

中文翻译：

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预处理对甘蔗压榨泥发酵乙醇和杂醇产量的影响

摘要 降低生物乙醇流中的杂醇含量是通过乙醇蒸汽重整 (ESR) 提高氢气 (H2) 产量必须克服的挑战。在此，裂区实验设计用于评估温度和 HNO3 负载量，在预处理甘蔗压榨泥以进行后续发酵期间，对乙醇和杂醇含量的影响。结果表明，由于预处理过程中还原糖的形成，预处理温度对发酵过程中的乙醇浓度有重要影响。乙醇 (64 g L-1) 和杂醇 (547 mg L-1) 含量最高是在 130 °C 下获得，不含 HNO3。但是，在 130 °C 时，添加 16 g HNO3 kg-1 固体会使乙醇和杂醇浓度分别降低 3.5% 和 20%。所以，HNO3 确实对杂醇生产有重要影响，但对发酵后乙醇浓度的影响很小。在所述预处理条件下（即，130 °C 和 16 g HNO3 kg-1 固体），根据质量平衡和经验相关性计算可能产生 5.46 g H2 kg-1 的甘蔗压榨泥。因此，在生物质预处理过程中加入 HNO3 可以进一步提高 ESR 的 H2 产量。