Two-stage alkaline/copper 2,2'-bipyridine-catalyzed alkaline hydrogen peroxide (Cu-AHP) pretreatment is an effective strategy for improving the enzymatic digestibility of hybrid poplar. To reduce the chemical inputs and processing costs associated with this process, we investigated the effect of increasing the temperature for both the alkaline pre-extraction and the Cu-AHP pretreatment stages. The results indicate that increasing the alkaline pre-extraction and the Cu-AHP pretreatment temperatures from 30 to 120 and 80 �C, respectively, allowed us to reduce both the pretreatment time of the Cu-AHP stage and the chemical loadings. Incubating alkaline pre-extracted hybrid poplar for 12 h with 10% NaOH (w/w biomass), 8% hydrogen peroxide (w/w biomass), and a Cu<
sup>
2+<
/sup>
and 2,2'-bipyridine (bpy) concentration of 1 mM yielded monomeric sugar yields of approximately 77% glucose and 66% xylose (based on the initial sugar composition) following enzymatic hydrolysis. Technoeconomic analysis (TEA) indicates that these changes to the two-stage alkaline/Cu-AHP pretreatment process could potentially reduce the minimum fuel selling price (MFSP) by more than $\$1.00$ per gallon of biofuel compared to the reference case where both stages were conducted at 30 �C with higher chemical inputs.