Recycling of enzymes in the hydrolysis of biomass of miscanthus giganteus and miscanthus sacchariflorus

The miscanthus giant and miscanthus sugar biomass were ground with a cutting mill and subjected to thermal pre-treatment in an alk. medium, followed by hydrothermal treatment with a comm. cellulase prepn. and a mixt. of auxiliary enzymes. The solid fraction after the enzymatic reaction was used for enzymatic hydrolysis of fresh biomass batch. This process was carried out 3 times. The glucose productivity was 3.0-4.2, 1.7-2.5, and 1.3-1.9 mg/mg enzyme protein for the first, second and third reactions, resp. The concn. of reducing sugars after the third enzymatic hydrolysis was about half lower than after the first hydrolysis.