Pretreatment of agroindustry waste by ozonolysis for synthesis of biorefinery products

Agroindustry waste has huge potential to be utilized by adopting the concept “waste to wealth.” Ozonolysis is one of the effective methods to break down the lignin structure without affecting cellulose structures. Ozonolysis enhances delignification rate and sugar release yield by attacking biomass structures and release cellulose microfibrills. The ozonolysis process has been investigated for optimum degradation of lignin and sugar release yield depending on several operating parameters, including reactor design, reaction time, ozone concentration, biomass particle size, and moisture content. The characteristics and structural changes on ozone-pretreated biomass proved the biomass breakdown and reduced an amount of amorphous components attributed to the degradation of lignin and hemicellulose. After the separation process, cellulose can be utilized to produce biorefinery products such as bioethanol, biohydrogen, levulinic acid, and other potential higher value-added products.