Pressure, temperature, and retention time are the most studied parameters in steam explosion pretreatment. However, this work aimed to fix these parameters and to evaluate the influences of several less investigated steam explosion parameters on the saccharification yield in hydrolysis. In this study, firstly, pinewood samples smaller than 200 µm were treated with steam explosion at 190 °C for 10 min. The variable parameters were biomass loading, N2 pressure, and release time. Steam-exploded samples were hydrolyzed with the Trichoderma reesei enzyme for saccharification for 72 h. The sugar content of the resultant products was analyzed to estimate the yield of sugars (such as glucose, xylose, galactose, mannose, and arabinose). The best glucose yield in the pulp was achieved with 4 g of sample, N2 pressure of 0.44 MPa, and short release time (22 s). These conditions gave a glucose yield of 97.72% in the pulp, and the xylose, mannose, galactose, and arabinose yields in the liquid fraction were found to be 85.59%, 87.76%, 86.43%, and 90.3%, respectively.

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With the aim to obtain a pure renewable second-generation biofuel, transesterification reaction of safflower oil and sugar-beet molasses originated ethanol, and usage options as a blend component were investigated. Depleting fossil fuels, increasing fossil fuel prices, and fossil fuel-related emissions are significant global problems. The progress in pure biobased and safer fuels gains importance to figure out these problems. Biodiesel is an excellent fuel candidate that can substitute conventional diesel fuel. For its production, fatty acid methyl esters were primarily proposed. However, with their many advantages, ethyl esters have come to the fore because of environmental and technical issues. Thus, using a by-product originated bioethanol as alcohol and safflower oil as a non-edible raw material would further enhance the renewability and sustainability of one of the second-generation biofuels. This paper studied the transesterification reaction of safflower oil with sugar-beet molasses originated bioethanol. The effects of the safflower oil:ethanol (mole:mole) ratio, catalyst amount, and temperature on the ester content were individually investigated. The fuel properties of safflower oil ethyl ester and 2%, 5%, 7% v/v safflower oil ethyl ester blended diesel and rural diesel fuels were determined according to the standards. The main advantages of ethyl ester addition to diesel fuel include the increase in flash point and the decrease in sulfur content. However, some additives should improve some properties (cold filter plugging point and oxidation stability).