Super-rapid enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose with supercritical water sulubilization pretreatment

Supercritical water pretreatments of cellulose were conducted with a specially-designed flow type microreactor at 360∼400°C, 25∼33 MPa and 0.1∼0.4 seconds. By the treatment of supercritical water (380°C and 30 MPa), more than 70% of cellulose could be solubilized in extremely short reaction times of 0.18∼0.28 seconds. Enzymatic reactivities for the solubilized cellulose and for the recrystallized cellulose (cellulose II crystal) were measured. As a result, the enzymatic reactivity of the solubilized cellulose was about 13 times higher than that of original cellulose. The enzymatic reactivity of the recrystallized cellulose was about 4 times higher. By this method, solubilized cellulose could be converted to glucose and cellobiose with the selectivity of 74~84%.