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Updated: Aug 17, 2026
Ammonia Fiber Expansion (AFEX) Pretreatment of Lignocellulosic Biomass
Published on: April 18, 2020
Pretreatment of switchgrass by ammonia fiber explosion (AFEX)
Hasan Alizadeh1, Farzaneh Teymouri, Thomas I Gilbert
1Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, 2527 Engineering Building, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48823, USA.
Abstract:
The effects of ammonia fiber explosion (AFEX) pretreatment of switch grass using its major process variables are reported. The optimal pretreatment conditions for switchgrass were found to be near 100 degrees C reactor temperature, and ammonia loading of 1:1 kg of ammonia: kg of dry matter with 80% moisture content (dry weight basis [dwb]) at 5 min residence time. Hydrolysis results of AFEX-treated and untreated samples showed 93% vs 16% glucan conversion, respectively. The ethanol yield of optimized AFEX-treated switchgrass was measured to be about 0.2 g ethanol/g dry biomass, which is 2.5 times more than that of the untreated sample.
