Agradecimentos: The authors would like to thank Research and Innovation Funding Agency of the State of Santa Catarina – FAPESC (Project under registration: 2021TR000334) for financial support; National Council for Scientific and Technological Development – CNPq (process number 308389/2019-0, 307014/2020-7 and 403675/2021-9). This study is also part of the project "INCT Yeasts: Biodiversity, preservation and biotechnological innovation" (CNPq process number 406564/2022-1); FINEP (process number 01.09.0566.00/1421-08); and Coordination of Personnel Improvement of Higher Education (CAPES grant number: 88887614919/2021-00) Ver menos

Abstract: Tobacco stem is an abundant and inexpensive renewable source to produce prebiotics by circular economy. In this study, hydrothermal pretreatments were evaluated on the release of xylooligosaccharides (XOS) and cello-oligosaccharides (COS) from the tobacco stem by a central composite rotational design associated with response surface methodology to evaluate the effects of temperature (161.72 to 218.3 °C) and solid load (SL) (2.93 to 17.07%). XOS were the main compounds released to the liquor. Desirability function was performed to maximize the production of XOS and minimize the effects of release of monosaccharides and degradation compounds. The result indicated yield of 96% w[XOS]/w[xylan] for 190 °C-2.93% SL. The highest value for COS and total oligomers content (COS + XOS) was 6.42 g/L and 17.7 g/L, respectively, for 190 °C-17.07% SL. The mass balance for the best yield XOS condition predicted 132 kg of XOS (X2-X6) from 1000 kg of tobacco stem Ver menos