Silica removal by alkaline hydrogen peroxide treatment to enhance the conversion of rice straw to sugars

The massive production of rice straw could eventually lead to uncontrolled air pollution due to open burning activity. In this study, the rice straw was treated with alkaline hydrogen peroxide (AHP) to remove silica as well as to maximize the hydrolysis of the treated rice straw. Thus the study aimed to determine the effects of reaction parameters (i.e. AHP concentrations, particle sizes of rice straw, and temperature) towards the pretreatment with AHP in a batch system. From the characterization analysis, the rice straw sample contained high amount of silica (20%) and lignin (20%). From the study, >83.8% silica removal, 80% of delignification, and 7.88% of reduced sugar were achieved at optimum conditions of 60 °C with 10% AHP solution for sample with