Dilute Acid Induced Changes on Microscopic and Tomographic Structure of Water Hyacinth [Eichhornia Crassipes (Mart.) Solms] Biomass during Bioconversion Process to Xylitol

Background/Objectives: The present study was conducted on Water Hyacinth Biomass (WHB) to understand its anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, tomography and the response of dilute acid pretreatment under different parametric conditions on these aspects. Methods/Statistical Analysis: Leaves and Stems (petioles) of WHB were grinded to make a fresh paste. 8g of paste is soaked in 1, 3 and 5% of H2SO4 solution for 1, 2, 3 and 4 h under agitation of 130, 160 and 190 rpm at temperature of 30 oC, 40 oC, 50 oC and 60 oC and boiled for 15 and 30 min. Untreated and treated biomass were then dried and preserved. Findings: It has been observed under the microscope that there has been a prominent lysis in the cell wall, vascular bundles and several other tissues when the transverse section of young, middle and old aged ischolar_main, stem and leaf are soaked in 1-5% acid with agitation of 130-160 rpm for 1-4 h at 30-60 oC. To justify the reason behind obtaining higher yield of xylose sugar by acid hydrolysis, fresh WHB paste was treated with dilute acid with same parametric conditions which gave higher xylose yield. Treated biomass was investigated under Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and it was observed that the pretreatment alters the structural and chemical composition of complex structure of lignocellulose in WHB for rapid hydrolysis to fermentable sugars. Applications/Improvements: This paper represents the effect of hydrolysis on the WHB which is clearly evident from the anatomical studies in microscope and SEM. The biomass can be efficiently utilized for bioconversion into value added products after acid hydrolysis.