title: Post-treatment mechanical refining as a method to improve overall sugar recovery of steam pretreated hybrid poplar.
abstract: This study investigates the effect of mechanical refining to improve the sugar yield from biomass processed under a wide range of steam pretreatment conditions. Hybrid poplar chips were steam pretreated using six different conditions with or without SO2. The resulting water insoluble fractions were subjected to mechanical refining. After refining, poplar pretreated at 205°C for 10min without SO2 obtained a 32% improvement in enzymatic hydrolysis and achieved similar overall monomeric sugar recovery (539kg/tonne) to samples pretreated with SO2. Refining did not improve hydrolyzability of samples pretreated at more severe conditions, nor did it improve the overall sugar recovery. By maximizing overall sugar recovery, refining could partially decouple the pretreatment from other unit operations, and enable the use of low temperature, non-sulfur pretreatment conditions. The study demonstrates the possibility of using post-treatment refining to accommodate potential pretreatment process upsets without sacrificing sugar yields.
authors.affiliation: Biofuels and Bioproducts Laboratory, School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98115, USA.
authors.forename: Chang
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Dou
authors.affiliation: Biofuels and Bioproducts Laboratory, School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98115, USA.
authors.forename: Shannon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ewanick
authors.affiliation: Biofuels and Bioproducts Laboratory, School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98115, USA. Electronic address: renatab@u.washington.edu.
authors.forename: Renata
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bura
authors.affiliation: Biofuels and Bioproducts Laboratory, School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98115, USA.
authors.forename: Rick
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gustafson
mesh_terms: D018533:Biomass; D001709:Biotechnology / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods*; D002241:Carbohydrates / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D002482:Cellulose / Q000378:metabolism; D005947:Glucose / Q000378:metabolism; D006824:Hybridization, Genetic; D006868:Hydrolysis; D010316:Particle Size; D032107:Populus / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics*; D012995:Solubility; D013227:Steam; D014994:Xylose / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D002241:Carbohydrates; D013227:Steam; D002482:Cellulose; D014994:Xylose; D005947:Glucose
keywords: Enzymatic hydrolysis; Mechanical refining; Overall sugar recovery; Particle size; Steam explosion pretreatment