Current efforts are taken to increase resource efficiency, close material loops, and improve sustainable waste and by-products management. Thus, networking agro-food by-products andc onverting them into valuable products completely exhausting the potential of the raw material becomes significant. Model lignocellulosic and starch based biomass were subjected to pre-treatment with the application of acidic compounds, i.e. sulphuric (SA) and acetic (AA) acids. The response, i.e. total sugar content and derivatives content is investigated depending on variables changed during hydrolysis: concentration of acid, process duration, temperature and the size of the biomass particles. After saccharification, the hydrolysates were analysed via HPLC. Total reducing sugars concentration was in the range of 0.1 – 15.53 g/LAmong the substances present in the hydrolysates, protein, peptides, hydroxybenzyl acid (HA), 5-HMF, furfural (FF), vanillin (V), vanillic acid (VA), formic acid (FA) and levulinic acid (LA) were found in the range of 0.44 – 9.05 g/L and determined as total derivatives concentration. The aim of the study was to evaluate the measurable effects of the research and deliver information about the statistically important parameters for the process course and relations between the variables.

The presented results of research on the effectiveness of enzymatic hydrolysis of lignocellulosic waste, depending on their initial depolymerisation in alkaline medium were considered in the context of the possibility of their further use in the fermentation media focused on the recovery of energy in the form of molecular hydrogen. The aim of this study was to determine the appropriate dose and concentration of a chemical reagent, whose efficiency would be high enough to cause decomposition of the complex, but without an excessive production of by-products which could adversely affect the progress and effectiveness of the enzymatic hydrolysis and fermentation. The effect of treatment on physical-chemical changes of homogenates’ properties such as pH, COD, the concentration of monosaccharide and total sugars and the concentration of total suspended solids and volatile suspended solids was determined. The enzymatic decomposition of lignocellulosic complex was repeatedly more efficient if the sample homogenates were subjected to an initial exposure to NaOH. The degree of conversion of complex sugars into simple sugars during enzymatic hydrolysis of homogenates pre-alkalized to pH 11.5 and 12.0 was 83.3 and 84.2% respectively, which should be sufficient for efficient hydrogen fermentation process.