Microwave steam explosion and enzymatic hydrolysis of vine-branch

Our research target was to utilise vine-branch, existing in huge amounts, for energetic purposes. During our experiments, microwave (MW) treatments of different powers (400–1600 W), pressures (1–5 bar), temperatures (120–180 °C), and treatment times (3–30 min) were applied to change the physical condition of vine-branch. After MW, enzymatic hydrolysis (EH) was used (85–100 h, 37 °C). In addition, beside MW, comparisons were made regarding various treatment methods: untreated (UTE), cooking plate (CP), and autoclave (AC), to determine to what extent they affect the final glucose yield. This yield can even further be increased by MW pre-treatment (50 W, 3–30 min, 40 °C) of the enzyme used during the hydrolysis, which reinforces the argument that enzyme activity can be increased by irradiation. A difference of 22.1% was detected among the glucose yield values in untreated and treated enzyme processes