Researchers from the Laboratorio Nacional de Ciencia e Tecnologia do Bioetanol, Federal University of Pernambuco, Center of Sugarcane Technology (Brazil) report the use of dilute acid mixtures of sulfuric acid (1%, w/v) and acetic acid (1% w/v) for the pretreatment of sugarcane bagasse. The objective of the pretreatment was to liberate the cellulose and hemicellulose fractions of the biomass, so that these could be easily saccharified to simple sugars. The simple sugars are subsequently fermented to ethanol. The dilute acid mixture treatment was performed at two solids loading ratios of 1.5:10 and 1.0:10(kilograms bagasse to liters dilute acid). The temperature of the reaction mixture was heated to 190 degrees Celsius for 10 minutes. The results showed that at both solids loading conditions, the hydrolysis of hemicellulose was efficient, giving removals greater than 90%. The high yield of hemicellulose hydrolyzates with low (toxic) lignin-degradation products makes this a potentially good substrate for ethanol fermentation. Morphological analyses also showed that the pretreatment process was effective in disrupting the fibers. The full results of the study are published in the journal, Biomass and Bioenergy (URL above).