Energy utilization is a determining factor for the standards of living around the world, and the current primary source of energy is fossil fuels. A potential source of liquid fuels that could ease the strain caused by diminishing petroleum resources is bioethanol. Effective exploitation of biomass materials requires a pretreatment to disrupt the lignin and cellulose matrix. The pretreatment utilized for this research was oxygen delignification, which is a standard process stage in the production of bleached chemical pulp. The model substrate utilized as a feedstock for bioethanol was recovered fibre. An analysis of the substrates digestibility resulted in a hexose yield of approximately 23%, which justified the need for an effective pretreatment. An experimental design was performed to optimize the delignification conditions by performing experiments over a range of temperature, caustic loadings, and reaction times. Equations were developed that outline the dependence of various response parameters on the experimental variables. An empirical model that can predict sugar concentrations from enzymatic hydrolysis based on the Kappa number, enzyme loading, and initial fibre concentration was also developed. A study of hydrolysis feeding regimes for untreated recovered fibre (87 Kappa), pretreated recovered fibre (17 Kappa), and bleached pulp (6 Kappa) showed that the batch feeding regime offers reduced complexity and high sugar yields for lower Kappa substrates. In order to evaluate the possibility of lignin recovery, the pH of delignification liquor was reduced by the addition of CO₂ and H₂SO₄, resulting in up to 25% lignin yield. An experiment that looked at effect of post-delignification fibre washing on downstream hydrolysis found that a washing efficiency of approximately 90% is required in order to achieve a hexose sugar yield of 85%.

Energy utilization is a determining factor for the standards of living around the world, and the current primary source of energy is fossil fuels. A potential source of liquid fuels that could ease the strain caused by diminishing petroleum resources is bioethanol. Effective exploitation of biomass materials requires a pretreatment to disrupt the lignin and cellulose matrix. The pretreatment utilized for this research was oxygen delignification, which is a standard process stage in the production of bleached chemical pulp. The model substrate utilized as a feedstock for bioethanol was recovered fibre. An analysis of the substrates digestibility resulted in a hexose yield of approximately 23%, which justified the need for an effective pretreatment. An experimental design was performed to optimize the delignification conditions by performing experiments over a range of temperature, caustic loadings, and reaction times. Equations were developed that outline the dependence of various response parameters on the experimental variables. An empirical model that can predict sugar concentrations from enzymatic hydrolysis based on the Kappa number, enzyme loading, and initial fibre concentration was also developed. A study of hydrolysis feeding regimes for untreated recovered fibre (87 Kappa), pretreated recovered fibre (17 Kappa), and bleached pulp (6 Kappa) showed that the batch feeding regime offers reduced complexity and high sugar yields for lower Kappa substrates. In order to evaluate the possibility of lignin recovery, the pH of delignification liquor was reduced by the addition of CO₂ and H₂SO₄, resulting in up to 25% lignin yield. An experiment that looked at effect of post-delignification fibre washing on downstream hydrolysis found that a washing efficiency of approximately 90% is required in order to achieve a hexose sugar yield of 85%.

Energy utilization is a determining factor for the standards of living around the world, and the current primary source of energy is fossil fuels. A potential source of liquid fuels that could ease the strain caused by diminishing petroleum resources is bioethanol. Effective exploitation of biomass materials requires a pretreatment to disrupt the lignin and cellulose matrix. The pretreatment utilized for this research was oxygen delignification, which is a standard process stage in the production of bleached chemical pulp. The model substrate utilized as a feedstock for bioethanol was recovered fibre. An analysis of the substrates digestibility resulted in a hexose yield of approximately 23%, which justified the need for an effective pretreatment. An experimental design was performed to optimize the delignification conditions by performing experiments over a range of temperature, caustic loadings, and reaction times. Equations were developed that outline the dependence of various response parameters on the experimental variables. An empirical model that can predict sugar concentrations from enzymatic hydrolysis based on the Kappa number, enzyme loading, and initial fibre concentration was also developed. A study of hydrolysis feeding regimes for untreated recovered fibre (87 Kappa), pretreated recovered fibre (17 Kappa), and bleached pulp (6 Kappa) showed that the batch feeding regime offers reduced complexity and high sugar yields for lower Kappa substrates. In order to evaluate the possibility of lignin recovery, the pH of delignification liquor was reduced by the addition of CO₂ and H₂SO₄, resulting in up to 25% lignin yield. An experiment that looked at effect of post-delignification fibre washing on downstream hydrolysis found that a washing efficiency of approximately 90% is required in order to achieve a hexose sugar yield of 85%. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Chemical and Biological Engineering, Department of / Graduate

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(エネルギー科学) / 甲第20477号 / エネ博第346号 / 新制||エネ||69(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院エネルギー科学研究科エネルギー社会・環境科学専攻 / (主査)教授 坂 志朗, 教授 髙部 圭司, 准教授 河本 晴雄 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Energy Science / Kyoto University / DGAM

The first part of the dissertation presented a potentially novel aerobic, thermophilic, and cellulolytic bacterium identified as Brevibacillus sp. Strain JXL which was isolated from swine waste. Strain JXL can utilize a broad range of carbohydrates including: cellulose, carboxymethylcellulose (CMC), xylan, cellobiose, glucose, and xylose. In two different media supplemented with crystalline cellulose and CMC at 57°C under aeration, strain JXL produced a basal level of cellulases as FPU of 0.02 IU/ml in the crude culture supernatant. When glucose or cellobiose was used besides cellulose, cellulase activities were enhanced ten times during the first 24 h, but with no significant difference between the effects caused by these two simple sugars. After the end of the 24 hour period, however, culture with glucose demonstrated higher cellulase activities compared with that from cellobiose. Similar trend and effect on cellulase activities were also observed when glucose or cellobiose served as a single substrate. The optimal doses of cellobiose and glucose for cellulase induction were 0.5 and 1%. These inducing effects were further confirmed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images, which indicated the presence of extracellular protuberant structures. These cellulosome-resembling structures were most abundant in culture with glucose, followed by cellobiose and without sugar addition. With respect to cellulase activity assay, crude cellulases had an optimal temperature of 50°C and optimal pH range of 6-8. These cellulases also had high thermotolerance as demonstrated by retaining more than 50% activity after 1 h at 100°C. In summary, this is the first study to show that the genus Brevibacillus may have strains that can degrade cellulose. In the second part of the dissertation, the effect of Cellulose- and Organic-Solvent based Lignocellulose Fractionation (COSLIF) (Zhang, Y.-H. P.; Ding, S.-Y.; Mielenz, J. R.; Elander, R.; Laser, M.; Himmel, M.; McMillan, J. D.; Lynd, L. R. Biotechnol. Bioeng.2007, 97 (2), 214−223) pretreatment conditions on sweet sorghum bagasse (SSB) feedstock was studied using Response Surface Methodology (RSM). Batch experimental matrix was set up based on response surface method's central composite design in two factors to determine the effects of reaction time and temperature on the yield of simple sugars after a sequential pretreatment-enzyme hydrolysis process. Accordingly, changes in delignification, total reducing sugar (TRS) yield, glucan retention, digestibility and overall sugar yields resulting from various combinations of reaction times and temperatures were determined. The results suggested that both pretreatment temperature and reaction time were significant factors, although temperature was more so than reaction time. COSLIF pretreatment conditions of 50°C and 40 min were found to be the optimum pretreatment conditions for the saccharification of SSB. At the end of pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis, maximum values of 51.4% delignification, 85% overall glucose yield, and 44% overall xylose yield at an ACCELERASE®1500 loading of 0.25 mL/g sweet sorghum bagasse were achieved. Optimum ACCELERASE®1500 dosage of 0.1 mL/g of sweet sorghum bagasse was identified which resulted in an overall glucose yield of 82.2%±1.05. An effort has also been made to prescribe predictive models which represented the correlation between independent variables (reaction time and temperature), and dependent variables (delignification, and overall glucose yield) using RSM. The significance of the correlations and adequacy of these models were statistically tested for the selected objective functions. The outcomes suggested very competent and statistically adequate regression models which provided quantitative information both for delignification and overall glucose yield for the batch experiments studied.

The sulfite pulping process is today practised in only a small number of pulp mills around the globe and the number of sulfite mills that use sodium as the base (cation) is less than five. However, due to the increasing interest in the wood based biorefinery concept, the benefits of sulfite pulping and especially the sodium based variety, has recently gained a lot of interest. It was therefore considered to be of high importance to further study the sodium based sulfite process to investigate if its benefits could be better utilized in the future in the production of dissolving pulps. Of specific interest was to investigate how the pulping conditions in the initial part of the cook (≥ 60 % pulp yield) should be performed in the best way. Thus, this thesis is focused on the initial phase of single stage sodium bisulfite cooking of either 100 % spruce or 100 % pine wood chips. The cooking experiments were carried out with either a lab prepared or a mill prepared cooking acid and the temperature and cooking time were varied. Activation energies for different wood components were investigated as well as side reactions concerning the formation of thiosulfate and sulfate. / Single stage sodium bisulfite cooking was carried out on either spruce or pine wood chips to investigate the influence of several process parameters in the initial phase of such a cook i.e. between 100 % and 60 % pulp yield. The cooking experiments were carried out with either a lab prepared or a mill prepared cooking acid and the temperature and time in the initial stage were varied. The influence of dissolved organics and inorganics components in the cooking liquor on the final pulp properties and side reactions were investigated. The impact of temperature and time on the pulp components were analyzed with respect to carbohydrates, lignin, extractives and thiosulfate. Kinetic equations were developed and the activation energies for delignification and carbohydrate dissolution were calculated using the Arrhenius equation. It was found that if using a mill prepared cooking acid, this had a beneficial effect with respect to side reactions, better extractives removal and higher pH stability during the cook, compared to a corresponding cook with a lab prepared cooking acid. Cooking with mill prepared and lab prepared cooking acids showed the same behaviour with respect to delignification and carbohydrate degradation, but the lab acid experiments resulted in a higher thiosulfate formation during the cook. The cellulose yield was not affected at all during the initial phase of the sulfite cook verifying earlier results by other researchers. The temperature had an influence on both the delignification rate and the rate of hemicelluloses removal.  The corresponding activation energies were found to increase in the following order; cellulose, xylan, glucomannan and lignin. / <p>Artikel 1: "The Initial Phase of Sodium Bisulfite Pulping of Spruce: Part 1" ingick i avhandlingen som manuskript. Nu publicerad.</p>

<p>In 1957 Vroom presented an article that dealt with the kinetics of the sulphate cook. He showed that the lignin dissolution exhibited a temperature/time dependency that could be explained by the Arrhenius equation and that the reaction was of first order with respect to lignin. However, even before Vroom introduced the H-factor all wood components were assumed to react according to a first order reaction. In recent years progresses in this area have been made. Lignin for example is nowadays considered to dissolve during three parallel first order reactions, all with differences in activation energies.</p><p>When the kinetics are evaluated, several cooking series at different temperatures and concentrations of active cooking chemicals are needed. The data points obtained are then fitted into some equation. If the concentration of the active cooking chemicals is constant, the activation energies and the chemical dependency for the dissolution of wood components can easily be found. In order to simplify the evaluations of the kinetics, very high liquor-to-wood ratios are sometimes used, often as high as 50:1 or even 75:1. In this manner, the chemical concentrations are almost constant during the cook. The problem is that in the normal industrial cook where the liquor-to-wood ratio is about 4:1, the chemical concentration is not constant. This is due mostly to the alkali consumption that takes place in the cook for example when neutralising the acidic groups in the hemicelluloses.</p><p>A disadvantage with high liquor-to-wood ratios is the high dilution of the dissolved organic matter. A high concentration of dissolved lignin boosts the dissolution of the remaining lignin in the wood residue and xylan can redeposit on the fibres when its concentration in the cooking liquor is high.</p><p>The aim of this project was to describe how different liquor-to-wood ratios influence the kinetics during sulphate cooking of spruce.</p>

No Brasil o etanol é considerado a melhor escolha para reduzir as dependências dos combustíveis fósseis. Para atender as metas de produção desse combustível renovável, fontes de materiais lignocelulósicos podem ser utilizadas com o intuito de se aproveitar a fração celulósica para obtenção de açúcar fermentável. Contudo, é preciso desenvolver métodos de pré-tratamento eficientes e economicamente viáveis custo para reduzir a recalcitrância da biomassa vegetal in natura, aumentando dessa forma a eficiência da etapa de hidrólise enzimática. Este trabalho teve como objetivo avaliar o efeito do pré-tratamento por explosão a vapor e do pré-tratamento com ácido diluído, seguidos ou não de uma etapa de deslignificação alcalina, na hidrólise enzimática da palha de cana-de-açúcar. O pré-tratamento por explosão a vapor foi realizado em reator de 2,5 m3 sob temperaturas de 180 °C, 190 °C e 200 °C, por 15 min. O pré-tratamento com ácido diluído (1% m:m) foi feito em reator rotatório de 20 L a 180 °C, 185 °C, 190 °C e 195 °C, por 10 min. A etapa de deslignificação com NaOH (1% m:v) foi feita a 100 °C, por 1 h, em reator de 350 L para a palha pré-tratada por explosão a vapor e em ampolas de 500 mL para a palha de cana pré-tratada com ácido diluído. Amostras de todos os tratamentos foram analisadas por FTIR e MEV. Foram feitos ensaios de hidrólise enzimática utilizando Celluclast 1.5L (15 FPU/g de amostra) e &#946;-Glucosidase (10 UI/g de amostra). Os hidrolisados enzimáticos foram usados em testes de fermentabilidade conduzidos a 30 °C por 48 h utilizando S. cerevisiae UFPEDA 1238. Através de ambos pré-tratamentos foi possível remover mais de 90% de hemicelulose. O pré-tratamento com ácido diluído provocou uma maior degradação da celulose em relação ao pré-tratamento por explosão a vapor, bem como uma maior solubilização da lignina. A etapa de deslignificação alcalina somada ao pré-tratamento contribuiu para a remoção de até 80% da lignina. Análises de FTIR e MEV revelaram alterações das bandas de vibração dos grupamentos químicos e mudanças morfológicas das amostras tratadas em relação à palha in natura. O pré-tratamento por explosão a vapor a 200 °C promoveu a maior conversão enzimática (80%) e esse percentual foi aumentado para 85% pela aplicação da deslignificação alcalina. A fermentação dos hidrolisados enzimáticos se mostrou satisfatória, apresentando percentuais de eficiência acima de 70%. / In Brazil, ethanol is considered the best alternative to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. In order to enhance the production of this renewable fuel, lignocellulosic materials must be used with the goal of harnessing the cellulosic fraction to obtain fermentable sugar. However, an efficient pretreatment method to reduce recalcitrance of raw material is required for increasing the efficiency of enzymatic hydrolysis. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of two pretreatments, steam explosion and dilute acid, followed or not by an alkaline delignification, on enzymatic hydrolysis of sugarcane straw. Steam explosion was conducted in 2.5 m3 reactor at temperatures of 180 °C, 190 °C and 200 °C for 15 min. Dilute acid pretreatment was carried out in 20 L reactor at 180 °C, 185 °C, 190 °C and 195 °C for 10 min, using H2SO4 (1% w:w). Alkaline delignification was made with NaOH (1% w:v) at 100 °C for 1 h. Samples of all treatments were analyzed by FTIR and SEM. Enzymatic hydrolysis was performed with commercial cellulase Celluclast 1.5L (15 FPU/w of sample) and &#946;-Glucosidase (10 IU/w of sample). Alcoholic fermentation by S. cerevisiae UFPEDA 1238 was conducted at 30 °C for 48 h. The pretreatments studied were able to remove over 90% of hemicellulose fraction. Higher degradation of cellulose and lignin fractions was observed during diluted acid pretreatment. Alkaline delignification contributed to the removal of more than 80% of lignin. FTIR and SEM analysis revealed changes in the vibration bands of chemical groups and morphological variation of the treated samples compared to raw material. Steam explosion at 200 °C promoted the higher enzymatic conversion (80%) and this percentage was increased to 85% by application of alkaline delignification. Fermentation tests efficiency was above than 70%.

O uso do bagaço de cana-de-açúcar, um subproduto da produção sucroalcooleira, ainda está hoje atrelado diretamente à produção de energia com sua queima nas usinas, um uso que é pouco nobre, considerando-se a grande diversidade de compostos químicos presentes neste tipo de material. A possibilidade de valorização desta matéria-prima lignocelulósica está ligada a realização de etapas de separação das principais frações de compostos, a celulose, as hemiceluloses e a lignina. Neste contexto, as deslignificações organossolve, etapa de remoção da lignina através da solubilização da mesma em soluções orgânicas, tem grande potencial de uso, visto que nestas pode-se recuperar tanto a polpa como o licor de polpação para posterior uso. Assim, verifica-se que a solubilidade da lignina é o fator que diferencia a utilização de um dado solvente orgânico em uma deslignificação organossolve. Desta maneira, pode-se utilizar o conceito de parâmetros de solubilidade para a escolha de um melhor solvente para o processo. Neste trabalho, verificou-se a relação entre a deslignificação organossolve e a distância e afinidade de um solvente com a esfera de solubilidade de Hansen para a lignina de bagaço de cana-de-açúcar. Verificou-se que os parâmetros de solubilidade de Hansen para a lignina verificados na literatura não apresentam boa correlação com os dados de deslignificação, porém, uma nova esfera de solubilidade foi desenvolvida, na qual verificou-se um coeficiente de determinação de 0,93856, em detrimento de um de 0,72074 para a esfera de solubilidade verificada na literatura. Concluiu-se que o modelo desenvolvido possuía como principal diferença com relação ao modelo obtido por Hansen e Björkman para a lignina, um parâmetro de solubilidade para interações intermoleculares polares (&delta;p) inferior e um parâmetro de solubilidade para a capacidade de realização de ligações de hidrogênio (&delta;h) bem superior, porém mantendo o mesmo parâmetro de solubilidade total (&delta;). Confirmou-se a relação entre a deslignificação e os valores de distância e de afinidade obtidos neste trabalho, com a realização de deslignificações usando misturas ternárias e quaternárias com solventes de baixo custo e/ou excedentes no mercado (etanol, glicerol e 2-butanol, além de água). Concluiu-se que apesar da esfera de solubilidade desenvolvida permitir melhor ajuste dos dados, não se pode afirmar que esta é com certeza a esfera real para a lignina. / The use of sugarcane bagasse, a by-product of sugar and ethanol production, is still linked today directly to energy production with its burning in power plants, a use which is not very noble, considering the great diversity of chemical compounds present in the lignocellulosic matrix. The possibility of better use of lignocellulosic feedstock is linked to steps of separation of their main fractions, cellulose, hemicelluloses and lignin. In this context, organosolv delignification, in which lignin is removed by the solubilization in organic solutions have great potential, since both pulps and the pulping liquor can be recovered for later use. Thus, since the solubility of lignin is the factor that differentiates the use of a given organic solvent in an organosolv delignification, the concept of solubility parameters can be used for the selection of the organic solvent. In this dissertation the relationship between the distance and the affinity of a solvent with the Hansen sphere of solubility for lignin from bagasse cane sugar and organosolv delignification were studied. It was found that the Hansen solubility parameters for lignin found in the literature do not present a good correlation with delignification data. Thus a new sphere of solubility was developed, with a determination coefficient of 0.93856, over a determination coefficient of 0.72074 for the sphere of solubility found in the literature. It was concluded that the main differences between the developed model and the model obtained by Hansen and Björkman for lignin were a lower solubility parameter for polar intermolecular interactions (&delta;p) and a higher solubility parameter for hydrogen bonds (&delta;h), however keeping the same total solubility parameter (&delta;). The relationship between delignification and the values of the distance and affinity obtained in this work were confirmed with the attainment of organosolv delignification using tertiary and quaternary mixtures of solvents with low cost and/or availability in the market (ethanol, glycerol and 2-butanol, in addition to water). It was concluded that although the developed solubility sphere allowed a better fit of the data, it cannot be stated with certainty that this is the real sphere for lignin.

A casca de coco verde (Cocos Nucifera L.) é um resíduo lignocelulósico amplamente disponível na região Nordeste do Brasil e de grande preocupação ambiental devido ao seu volume elevado. Mas, os materiais lignocelulósicos podem ser recursos renováveis e abundantes para obtenção de açúcares após passarem por hidrólise enzimática da celulose e hemicelulose. Para uma eficiente hidrólise é necessário romper a rede lignocelulósica que circunda fisicamente as fibras de celulose dificultando contato entre celulose e enzima. Os tratamentos tradicionais de deslignificação que empregam condições drásticas de temperatura e pH levam à formação de alguns compostos que limitam o uso desses hidrolisados em processos biotecnológios pois inibem a ação microbiana. O tratamento com CO2 supercrítico pode ser operado em condições amenas de pH e temperatura evitando o problema da formação destes inibidores. Portanto, o objetivo geral desse trabalho foi a obtenção de açúcares redutores a partir da fibra da casca do coco verde por meio de hidrólise enzimática da fibra prétratada com CO2 em condições supercríticas. Foram estudadas sete condições de extração em que se variou o tempo de contato do CO2 com a fibra de coco (3 e 5 horas), modificador de polaridade (NaOH, NaHSO4 e etanol) e manteve-se constante a extração dinâmica por 1 hora seguida de despressurização rápida no final do processo. A eficiência da extração com CO2 supercrítico para deslignificação da fibra de coco verde foi baseada na caracterização da fibra pela composição lignocelulósica, imagens de microscopia eletrônica de varredura e análise qualitativa da composição lignocelulósica por espectroscopia de infravermelho com transformada de Fourier e a quantificação de açúcares redutores. A fibra de coco apresentou teores de lignina, celulose e hemicelulose de 26,66, 46,37 e 16,18 g/100g de fibra de coco verde seca, respectivamente. Para hidrólise enzimática utilizou-se uma enzima comercial composta de três enzimas principais: celulases, hemicelulases e &beta;-glucosidases em dois tempos de hidrólise (24 e 72 h) e duas concentrações enzimáticas (6 e 30g de enzima/g de celulose total no substrato) para que fossem avaliadas as situações de aplicação comercial e condições de rendimento máximo. O tratamento com CO2 supercrítico provocou alterações na estrutura física e química da fibra, aumentando a porosidade e diminuindo o teor de compostos fenólicos e ceras e também afrouxamento das ligações de hidrogênio caracterizando a deslignificação da fibra de coco verde. No entanto, a extração com CO2 supercrítico não causou aumento significativo da obtenção de açúcares redutores após hidrólise enzimática da fibra de coco. A hidrólise enzimática realizada em 72h gerou aumento em até 134% no teor de açúcares redutores em relação a hidrólise com 24h de reação para a mesma concentração enzimática (30%). A hidrólise enzimática (72h e 30% de enzima) da fibra de coco verde in natura apresentou bons valores de açúcares redutores (532,27 &micro;mol de glicose/g de fibra de coco seca), podendo ser uma nova utilização para o material lignocelulósico do coco verde que é subaproveitado. Os açúcares redutores obtidos da fibra de coco verde in natura podem passar por processo de purificação e isolamento de algum açúcar de interesse econômico ou ser utilizado em processos que açúcares redutores são necessários como substrato para fermentação por Saccharomyces cerevisiae na produção de álcool, por exemplo. / The coconut husk (Cocos nucifera L.) is a lignocellulosic byproduct widely available in the Brazilian Northeast region and due its high volume is a reason of huge environmental concern. But the lignocellulosic materials are renewable and abundant resources of sugars after submitted to enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose and hemicellulose. For efficient hydrolysis is necessary to break the lignocellulosic netting that physically surrounds the cellulose fibers hindering contact between the enzyme and cellulose. The traditional delignification treatment employing drastic conditions of temperature and pH lead to the formation and release of some compounds that limit the hydrolysates use in biotechnological processes since it inhibits microbial action. The treatment with supercritical CO2 can be operated at lower temperatures avoiding inhibitors formation. Therefore, the aim of this study was to obtain reducing sugars from the husk coconut fiber through enzymatic hydrolysis of pretreated fiber with CO2 in supercritical conditions. Seven extraction conditions were studied varying the CO2 contact time with the coconut fiber (3 and 5 hours), polarity modifier (NaOH, NaHSO4 and ethanol) and maintaining as constants the dynamic extraction time (1 hour) and rapid depressurization at the end of process. The efficiency of extraction with supercritical CO2 to green coconut fiber delignification was based on the characterization of the fiber by the lignocellulosic composition, images of scanning electron microscopy and qualitative analysis of lignocellulosic composition spectroscopy infrared with Fourier transform and quantification of reducing sugars. Green coconut fiber presents lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose contents of 26.66, 46.37 and 16.18 g/100 g of dry coconut fiber, respectively. For enzymatic hydrolysis used a commercial enzyme composed of three major enzymes: cellulase, hemicellulase and &beta;-glucosidases in two hydrolysis time (24 h and 72) and two enzymatic concentrations (6 and 30 g enzyme / g cellulose in total substrate) to be evaluated situations of commercial application and conditions de maximum yield. Treatment with supercritical CO2 caused changes in the physical and chemical structure of the fiber, increasing the porosity and decreasing the level of phenolic compounds, waxes and hydrogen bonds attenuation causing the delignification of coconut fiber. However, extraction with supercritical CO2 didn\'t significant increase reducing sugars fiber contents after enzymatic hydrolysis. Enzymatic hydrolysis performed in 72h caused up to 134% increase in reducing sugars compared to smaller hydrolysis time (24) for enzyme concentration of 30%. In general, enzymatic hydrolysis (72 hours and 30% of enzyme) of natural coconut fiber showed good values of reducing sugars (532,27 &micro;mol glucose/g de dry coconut fiber) and may be used as a new lignocellulosic material from coconut which is underused. Reducing sugars obtained from natural coconut fiber can pass through purification process of purification of some sugar of interest economic or be used in processes that reducing sugars are necessary as a substrate for fermentation by Saccharomyces cerevisiae, as example in alcohol production.