title: Comparison of lab, pilot, and industrial scale low consistency mechanical refining for improvements in enzymatic digestibility of pretreated hardwood.
abstract: Mechanical refining has been shown to improve biomass enzymatic digestibility. In this study industrial high-yield sodium carbonate hardwood pulp was subjected to lab, pilot and industrial refining to determine if the mechanical refining improves the enzymatic hydrolysis sugar conversion efficiency differently at different refining scales. Lab, pilot and industrial refining increased the biomass digestibility for lignocellulosic biomass relative to the unrefined material. The sugar conversion was increased from 36% to 65% at 5 FPU/g of biomass with industrial refining at 67.0 kWh/t, which was more energy efficient than lab and pilot scale refining. There is a maximum in the sugar conversion with respect to the amount of refining energy. Water retention value is a good predictor of improvements in sugar conversion for a given fiber source and composition. Improvements in biomass digestibility with refining due to lab, pilot plant and industrial refining were similar with respect to water retention value.
authors.affiliation: North Carolina State University, Department of Forest Biomaterials, Biltmore Hall, 2820 Faucette Drive, Raleigh, NC 27695, United States.
authors.forename: Brandon W
authors.initials: BW
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.affiliation: North Carolina State University, Department of Forest Biomaterials, Biltmore Hall, 2820 Faucette Drive, Raleigh, NC 27695, United States. Electronic address: richard_venditti@ncsu.edu.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Venditti
authors.affiliation: North Carolina State University, Department of Forest Biomaterials, Biltmore Hall, 2820 Faucette Drive, Raleigh, NC 27695, United States.
authors.forename: Sunkyu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Park
authors.affiliation: North Carolina State University, Department of Forest Biomaterials, Biltmore Hall, 2820 Faucette Drive, Raleigh, NC 27695, United States.
authors.forename: Hasan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Jameel
mesh_terms: D001709:Biotechnology / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods*; D002241:Carbohydrates / Q000032:analysis; D002254:Carbonates / Q000737:chemistry; D002480:Cellulase / Q000378:metabolism*; D006868:Hydrolysis; D007221:Industry; D010209:Paper; D010865:Pilot Projects; D013816:Thermodynamics; D014934:Wood / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D002241:Carbohydrates; D002254:Carbonates; C005686:sodium carbonate; D002480:Cellulase
keywords: Biochemical conversion; Enzymatic hydrolysis; Hardwood biomass; Mechanical refining; Water retention value (WRV)