Hydrothermal pretreatment of wood by mild steam explosion and hot water extraction
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Updated: Mar 1, 2026

Reducing Willow Wood Fuel Emission by Low Temperature Microwave Assisted Hydrothermal Carbonization
Published on: May 19, 2019
Joanna Wojtasz-Mucha1, Merima Hasani1, Hans Theliander1
1Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, SE 412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden; Wallenberg Wood Science Center, The Royal Institute of Technology, Chalmers University of Technology, SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden.
Abstract:
The aim of this work was to compare the two most common hydrothermal pre-treatments for wood - mild steam explosion and hot water extraction - both with the prospect of enabling extraction of hemicelluloses and facilitating further processing. Although both involve autohydrolysis of the lignocellulosic tissue, they are performed under different conditions: the most prominent difference is the rapid, disintegrating, discharge employed in the steam explosion opening up the structure. In this comparative study, the emphasis was placed on local composition of the pre-treated wood chips (of industrially relevant size). The results show that short hot water extraction treatments lead to significant variations in the local composition within the wood chips, while steam explosion accomplishes a comparably more even removal of hemicelluloses due to the advective mass transport during the explosion step.
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