Fractionating recalcitrant lignocellulose at modest reaction conditions.
Effectively releasing the locked polysaccharides from recalcitrant lignocellulose to fermentable sugars is among the greatest technical and economic barriers to the realization of lignocellulose biorefineries because leading lignocellulose pre-treatment technologies suffer from low sugar yields, and/or severe reaction conditions, and/or high cellulase use, narrow substrate applicability, and high capital investment, etc. A new lignocellulose pre-treatment featuring modest reaction conditions (50 degrees C and atmospheric pressure) was demonstrated to fractionate lignocellulose to amorphous cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin, and acetic acid by using a non-volatile cellulose solvent (concentrated phosphoric acid), a highly volatile organic solvent (acetone), and water. The highest sugar yields after enzymatic hydrolysis were attributed to no sugar degradation during the fractionation and the highest enzymatic cellulose digestibility ( approximately 97% in 24 h) during the hydrolysis step at the enzyme loading of 15 filter paper units of cellulase and 60 IU of beta-glucosidase per gram of glucan. Isolation of high-value lignocellulose components (lignin, acetic acid, and hemicellulose) would greatly increase potential revenues of a lignocellulose biorefinery.
Zhang
Yi-Heng Percival
YH
Biological Systems Engineering Department, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061, USA. ypzhang@vt.edu
Ding
Shi-You
SY
Mielenz
Jonathan R
JR
Cui
Jing-Biao
JB
Elander
Richard T
RT
Laser
Mark
M
Himmel
Michael E
ME
McMillan
James R
JR
Lynd
Lee R
LR
D002482:Cellulose / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D005591:Chemical Fractionation / Q000379:methods*; D006868:Hydrolysis; D008031:Lignin / Q000378:metabolism*; D012997:Solvents / Q000737:chemistry
D012997:Solvents; C036909:lignocellulose; D002482:Cellulose; D008031:Lignin