Hydrogen chloride treatment of rice straw for upcycling into nanofibrous products for sugar pool

The durability of the harvested wood products is currently contributing to the creation of a temporary carbon pool for the mitigation of global warming. To establish a new method to supply durable fabrication products from grass biomass, a hydrogen chloride treatment process was developed. Applying this treatment to rice straw particles reduced the xylan content and dramatically improved the disintegration efficiency to fibers. The treated and disintegrated particles exhibited a 6.3 times larger specific surface area than the untreated particles, and both particle disassembly into cells and cell surface fibrillation into nanofibrils were observed in microscopy images. The treatment of the particles also improved the susceptibility to enzymatic saccharification, enabling the fiber to be recycled into fermentable sugars after the use as structural materials. Thus, this process offers a method for bioresource management by converting grass into structural materials that pool carbon and sugars.