title: Comparison of different mechanical refining technologies on the enzymatic digestibility of low severity acid pretreated corn stover.
abstract: The effect of mechanical refining on the enzymatic digestibility of pretreated corn stover (PCS) was investigated. Low severity, dilute sulfuric acid PCS was subjected to mechanical refining using a bench-scale food processor blender, a PFI mill, a 12-inch laboratory disk refiner, and a 25 mm co-rotating twin-screw extruder. Glucose yields from enzymatic hydrolysis were improved by 10-15% after blending and disk refining, while PFI refining and twin-screw extrusion showed a glucose yield improvement of 16-20%. A pilot scale refining test using a Szego mill was performed and showed approximately 10% improvements in biomass digestibility. This suggests the possibility to scale up a mechanical refining technique to obtain similar enzymatic digestibility glucose yield enhancement as achieved by PFI milling and extrusion technologies. Proposed mechanisms of each mechanical refining technology are presented and reasons for improvements in biomass digestibility are discussed in this paper.
authors.affiliation: National Bioenergy Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 15013 Denver West Parkway, Golden, CO 80401, United States. Electronic address: Xiaowen.Chen@nrel.gov.
authors.forename: Xiaowen
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: National Bioenergy Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 15013 Denver West Parkway, Golden, CO 80401, United States.
authors.forename: Erik
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kuhn
authors.affiliation: National Bioscience Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 15013 Denver West Parkway, Golden, CO 80401, United States.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Forest Biomaterials, North Carolina State University, 2820 Faucette Drive, Campus Box 8005, Raleigh, NC 27695, United States.
authors.forename: Sunkyu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Park
authors.affiliation: IdeaCHEM, Inc., 710 Fairview St., Rapid City, SD 57701, United States.
authors.forename: Keith
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Flanegan
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry, University of Toronto, 200 College St, Toronto, ON M5S 3E5, Canada.
authors.forename: Olev
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Trass
authors.affiliation: Biomethodes - OptaFuel, 5516 Industrial Park Rd, Norton, VA 24273, United States.
authors.forename: Lisette
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Tenlep
authors.affiliation: National Bioenergy Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 15013 Denver West Parkway, Golden, CO 80401, United States.
authors.forename: Ling
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Tao
authors.affiliation: National Bioenergy Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 15013 Denver West Parkway, Golden, CO 80401, United States.
authors.forename: Melvin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tucker
mesh_terms: D000143:Acids / Q000378:metabolism*; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D010316:Particle Size; D003313:Zea mays / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D000143:Acids
keywords: Biomass saccharification; Biorefinery; Mechanical refining; Pretreatment