Evaluation of enzymatic hydrolysis of wheat straw pretreated by atmospheric glycerol autocatalysis

BACKGROUND: Because ethanol organosolv pulping requires high pressure and is highly volatile, an atmospheric autocatalytic glycerol organosolv pretreatment process has been investigated. Enzymatic hydrolysis of wheat straw pretreated using this method was evaluated to explore a novel, economically competitive and environmentally friendly pretreatment technology for bioconversion of lignocellulosic biomass. The method also provides economical utilization of industrial glycerol, helping to cope with the challenge of the excess production of glycerol and to further defray the cost of biodiesel production. RESULTS: With preliminary optimization of the parameters in the pretreatment process, pretreatment performed at 240 °C for 4 h with the glycerol addition of 15 g g^?1 dry feedstock and wash at 80 °C led to high recovery of cellulose (95%) and good removal of lignin (>70%), which formed, respectively, 80% and 10% of the pulp. The enzymatic hydrolysis of the pretreated wheat straw yielded 90% of theoretically achievable sugar after 24 h and 92% after 48 h. CONCLUSION: Atmospheric autocatalytic glycerol organosolv pretreatment removed significant amounts of hemicellulose and lignin without affecting good cellulose recovery. The proposed novel strategy increased the susceptible of wheat straw to enzyme attack and led to enzymatic hydrolysis that was comparable with that achieved using ethanol organosolv pretreatment. Copyright © 2007 Society of Chemical Industry     

甘蔗渣的酸催化常压甘油有机溶剂预处理及其酶解

预处理可以打破木质纤维素原料纤维素、半纤维素和木质素三大组分间的顽抗结构,从而提升纤维素基质可酶解性。本文针对目前常压甘油有机溶剂预处理花费时间过长的问题,尝试开展酸催化的常压甘油有机溶剂预处理研究以缩短预处理时间。实验通过单因素选择和响应面Box-Behnken设计优化,获得酸催化常压甘油有机溶剂预处理的最佳条件为：预处理温度245℃,预处理时间38min,硫酸添加质量0.1%。在此条件下获得基质48h酶解率的响应面预测值为94.0%,实际值为91.4%。结果表明响应面优化方案和回归模型适用于本实验,预处理显著提高了基质可酶解性。高浓度基质（15%～20%）酶解进一步证明了预处理后基质具有突出的可酶解性,20%浓度基质在酶载量5FPU/g干基质条件下批次酶解72h,酶解率达60%,葡萄糖浓度达83.4g/L。酸催化常压甘油有机溶剂酸预处理在明显缩短预处理时间的同时,能显著提高木质纤维素基质可酶解性,使后续工业化意义的浓醪酶解糖化成为可能。     

Catalytic organosolv fractionation of willow wood and wheat straw as pretreatment for enzymatic cellulose hydrolysis

BACKGROUND: Ethanol‐based organosolv fractionation of lignocellulosic biomass is an effective pretreatment technology for enzymatic cellulose hydrolysis to produce sugars and lignin within a biorefinery. This study focuses on the catalytic effect of H₂SO₄, HCl, and MgCl₂ on organosolv pretreatment of willow wood and wheat straw. RESULTS: The use of catalysts improved fractionation of both feedstocks. The maximum enzymatic cellulose digestibility obtained was 87% for willow wood (using 0.01 mol L^?1 H₂SO₄ as catalyst) and 99% for wheat straw (0.02 mol L^?1 HCl). Non‐catalytic organosolv fractionation at identical conditions resulted in 74% (willow wood) and 44% (wheat straw) glucose yield by enzymatic hydrolysis. Application of catalysts in organosolv pretreatment was particularly effective for wheat straw. The influence of the acid catalysts was found to be primarily due to their effect on the pH of the organosolv liquor. Acid catalysts particularly promoted xylan hydrolysis. MgCl₂ was less effective than the acid catalysts, but it seemed to more selectively improve delignification of willow wood. CONCLUSION: Application of catalysts in organosolv pretreatment of willow wood and wheat straw was found to substantially improve fractionation and enzymatic digestibility. The use of catalysts can contribute to achieving maximum utilization of lignocellulosic biomass in organosolv‐based biorefineries. Copyright © 2011 Society of Chemical Industry     

New lignocellulose pretreatments using cellulose solvents: a review

Non‐food lignocellulosic biomass is the most abundant renewable bioresource as a collectable, transportable, and storable chemical energy that is far from fully utilized. The goal of biomass pretreatment is to improve the enzymatic digestibility of pretreated lignocellulosic biomass. Many substrate factors, such as substrate accessibility, lignin content, particle size and so on, contribute to its recalcitrance. Cellulose accessibility to hydrolytic enzymes is believed to be the most important substrate characteristic limiting enzymatic hydrolysis. Cellulose solvents effectively break linkages among cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin, and also dissolve highly‐ordered hydrogen bonds in cellulose fibers accompanied with great increases in substrate accessibility. Here the history and recent advances in cellulose solvent‐based biomass pretreatment are reviewed and perspectives provided for addressing remaining challenges. The use of cellulose solvents, new and existing, provides opportunities for emerging biorefineries to produce a few precursors (e.g. monosaccharides, oligosaccharides, and lignin) for the production of low‐value biofuels and value‐added biochemicals. © 2012 Society of Chemical Industry     

木质纤维素预处理技术研究进展

木质纤维素转化燃料乙醇一般需要经过原料预处理、酶水解和发酵过程。由于木质纤维原料化学结构复杂、直接酶解效率非常低,一般在酶水解之前需要进行适当的预处理以打破其致密结构,增加纤维表面积,提高后续纤维素酶的可及性。预处理程度直接影响纤维底物后续酶水解的效果。本文在木质纤维素常用预处理技术分析的基础上,重点讨论了3种相对高效的预处理技术：微波辅助离子液体预处理、两阶段深度共熔溶剂（DES）预处理和氯化铁预处理技术,分析了它们的优势、不足及发展现状。文中指出微波辅助离子液体预处理可有效解构木质素和半纤维素,破坏纤维素结晶区域,利于后续酶解,但微波加热过程会使离子液体分解和部分底物碳化。两阶段DES预处理可有效提高酶水解效率,但是预处理后原料中残留的DES可能会对后续反应中纤维素酶和微生物产生抑制作用。氯化铁预处理可有效破坏木质素与碳水化合物间的结合键,脱除底物中的半纤维素,而对木质素和纤维素降解较少,具有很好的发展前景。由于单一预处理技术的局限性,寻求低成本高效的联合预处理技术将是未来重点发展的方向。     

木质纤维原料组分分离的研究

从木质纤维原料预处理对微生物转化的必要性和回收利用半纤维素、木质素意义两个方面分析了木质纤维原料组分分离的必要性。木质纤维原料组分分离意味着木质纤维原料的精制,不是把木质纤维原料仅作为纤维素单一资源看待,而是把它视为一种多组分物料,将木质纤维原料精制成为具有一定纯度的各种组分,并分别加工成有价值的产品,这也是生物量全利用对于木质纤维原料预处理提出的新要求,赋予新的哲理思想。根据生物量全利用的要求,提出了木质纤维原料组分分离技术的新定性评价标准。根据利用汽爆和乙醇萃取法联合对麦草组分分离的研究结果,可提出一条经济可行的麦草组分分离的工艺过程,半纤维素和木质素回收率分别达到了80%和75%,纤维素酶解率达90%以上。     

木质纤维素燃料乙醇生物转化预处理技术

由丰富的木质纤维素资源制备乙醇有利于缓解能源紧缺、减少环境污染、实现可持续发展.然而某些物理、化学因素阻碍了木质纤维素中纤维素和半纤维素的转化和利用.预处理引起物理和/或化学上的变化,主要目的是改变或去除各种结构和(或)化学障碍,增加纤维素酶解率和转化效果,是一系列纤维素乙醇转化技术中的关键和核心.本文就纤维素乙醇生物...     

Enzymatic hydrolysis from carbohydrates of barley straw pretreated by ionic liquids

BACKGROUND: Lignocellulosic biomass offers many potential advantages in comparison with the traditionally used sugars or starchy biomass since it is very widely available and does not compete with food and feed production. The abundance and high carbohydrates content of barley straw make it a good candidate for bioethanol production in Europe. Since biomass must be pretreated before enzymatic hydrolysis to improve the digestibility of both the cellulose and the hemicellulose biomass, the use of ionic liquids (IL) has been proposed as an environment‐friendly pretreatment of biomass. RESULTS: Different pretreatment conditions were investigated to determine the effects of the experimental conditions (temperature and time) on the enzymatic digestibility of pretreated material. The pretreatment of barley straw with 1‐ethyl‐3‐methyl imidazolium acetate treatment resulted in up to a 9‐fold increase in the cellulose conversion and a 13‐fold increase in the xylan conversion when compared with the untreated barley straw. CONCLUSION: Ionic liquid pretreatment of barley straw at 110°C for 30 min, followed by enzymatic hydrolysis, leads to a sugar yield of 53.5 g per 100 g raw material. It is then ready available for conversion into ethanol and is equivalent to more than 86% from potential sugars. The increase in saccharification was possible due to rupture of the lignin–hemicellulose linkages by treatment with 1‐ethyl‐3‐methyl imidazolium acetate. © 2012 Society of Chemical Industry     

植物纤维素原料预处理技术的研究进展

对植物纤维素的原料的预处理方法进行了综述,物理方法中,机械粉碎是较常用的方法,但耗能较多;稀酸预处理能有效去除半纤维素,效率较高,但稀酸处理能耗较多且对设备的防腐要求较高;蒸汽爆破处理能有效地分离纤维素、半纤维和木质素,所处理物料酶解转化率高。     

Enhanced enzymatic hydrolysis of rice straw pretreated by alkali assisted with photocatalysis technology

BACKGROUND: The fermentable sugars in lignocellulose are derived from cellulose and hemicellulose, which are not readily accessible to enzymatic hydrolysis because of their biological resistance, so that pretreatment of lignocellulose is needed for this process. In this work, a novel lignocellulose pretreatment method using alkali solution assisted by photocatalysis was investigated. RESULTS: The reaction conditions of nano‐TiO₂ dosage and photocatalysis time were optimized at 2 g L^?1 and 1 h, respectively. After pretreatment under these conditions, cellulose in rice straw was increased from 37.5% to 71.5%, and lignin decreased from 18.5% to 9.0%. The results of X‐ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FT‐IR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis showed that the physical properties and microstructure of the straw were changed by this pretreatment, which favored the following enzymatic hydrolysis. The enzymatic hydrolysis rate of the straw pretreated using this technology was verified to be 73.96%, which was 2.56 times higher than that obtained with the alkali procedure. CONCLUSION: The proposed photocatalysis pretreatment technology was more efficient at degrading the lignin and hemicellulose in rice straw than alkali pretreatment, making it more readily available for the following enzymatic hydrolysis process. Copyright © 2009 Society of Chemical Industry     

微波烘焙预处理降解玉米秸秆

用微波可高效对生物质烘焙预处理,考察了不同微波烘焙过程对玉米秸秆主要组分的降解作用及酸、碱、甘油催化剂对纤维素转化效率的影响,并对预处理的玉米秸秆进行酶解实验。结果表明,单纯的微波预处理对玉米秸秆中主要组分纤维素、半纤维素和木质素均有强烈的转化作用。无催化剂微波烘焙后,样品中纤维素含量降低了30%。在微波烘焙中添加酸、碱、甘油催化剂,可选择性降解玉米秸秆中的半纤维素或木质素,有效提高预处理后玉米秸秆中的纤维素含量,添加NaOH后纤维素含量增加最明显,由33%增至42%,纤维素最高转化率达65%。     

SULFUR DIOXIDE-ETHANOL-WATER PULPING OF HARDWOODS

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has developed a two-stage process to separately convert hemicellulose and cellulose to sugars leaving behind a high-lignin solid residue. Research at The University of Alabama has led to a proposed three-stage process utilizing sulfur dioxide to remove hemicellulose, followed by organosolv delignification to remove lignin and the remaining hemicellulose, then acid hydrolysis of the cellulose to glucose. The purpose of the work presented in this paper was to determine whether the sulfonation and delignification steps could be successfully combined. This would result in a simpler process with improved yield of glucose.

Pulping of hardwoods in a sulfur dioxide-ethanol-water system has been shown to give a 50 to 52 percent yield of solid residue with a lignin content of approximately 7%.These results offer improvements to the TVA process in several ways. Removal of the lignin from the lignocellulose matrix would allow more efficient acid hydrolysis of cellulose and the use of less severe conditions. Delignification also serves to increase yields from enzymatic hydrolysis. Use of an organosolv to remove lignin prior to condensation reactions from acid hydrolysis would produce a lignin product which is more reactive and has higher commercial potential. The results of this work have shown the feasibility of combining the University process with the TVA process while maintaining a two-stage process.     

Structural Variation of Bamboo Lignin before and after Ethanol Organosolv Pretreatment

In order to make better use of lignocellulosic biomass for the production of renewable fuels and chemicals, it is necessary to disrupt its recalcitrant structure through pretreatment. Specifically, organosolv pretreatment is a feasible method. The main advantage of this method compared to other lignocellulosic pretreatment technologies is the extraction of high-quality lignin for the production of value-added products. In this study, bamboo was treated in a batch reactor with 70% ethanol at 180 °C for 2 h. Lignin fractions were isolated from the hydrolysate by centrifugation and then precipitated as ethanol organosolv lignin. Two types of milled wood lignins (MWLs) were isolated from the raw bamboo and the organosolv pretreated residue separately. After the pretreatment, a decrease of lignin (preferentially guaiacyl unit), hemicelluloses and less ordered cellulose was detected in the bamboo material. It was confirmed that the bamboo MWL is of HGS type (p-hydroxyphenyl (H), vanillin (G), syringaldehyde (S)) associated with a considerable amount of p-coumarate and ferulic esters of lignin. The ethanol organosolv treatment was shown to remove significant amounts of lignin and hemicelluloses without strongly affecting lignin primary structure and its lignin functional groups.     

碳酸钠预处理对麦草酶水解糖化的影响

麦草是一种具有很大潜力的制取生物乙醇的可再生木质纤维素原料。文章探讨了碳酸钠预处理预浸时间、保温时间、碳酸钠用量对麦草化学成分及酶水解效率的影响。结果表明,延长碳酸钠预处理保温时间对木质素脱除无明显影响,但浆料得率和酶水解总糖转化率有所下降;合理的预浸时间为30 min,继续延长预浸时间对预处理浆料酶水解总糖转化率无促进作用;增加预处理Na2CO3用量有助于促进木质素的脱除,大部分碳水化合物保留在浆料中。在8% Na2CO3(Na2O计)用量下,麦草于80℃预浸30 min后升温至130℃,不保温所得到的浆料在纤维素酶用量为20 FPU/g(对纤维素)时,其总糖转化率为60%。     

Application of a microassay method to study enzymatic hydrolysis of pretreated wheat straw

BACKGROUND: The conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to ethanol includes a disruptive pretreatment process followed by enzyme‐catalyzed hydrolysis of the cellulose and hemicellulose components to fermentable sugars. As the cost and hydrolytic efficiency of enzymes are major factors that restrict the commercialization of biomass conversion processes, significant efforts are made nowadays to improve the enzymatic mixtures and make the process cost‐effective. RESULTS: In this work, enzymatic microassays have been developed and validated to test new different enzymatic formulations on real lignocellulosic substrates. Homogeneous handsheets from steam pretreated wheat straw were elaborated to be used as substrate. The microassay was adapted to test both water‐insoluble solids and the whole slurry as substrates. Results in hydrolysis microassays were comparable with those obtained in standard flask assays using pretreated wheat straw. Moreover, using the enzymatic microassays, two novel preparations have been evaluated, demonstrating the ability of microassays to discriminate between different enzymatic mixtures. CONCLUSIONS: This enzymatic microassay represents a rapid method to test the performance of new selected cellulase enzymes on real pretreated lignocellulosic substrates. This microassay will enable evaluation of enzyme components separately, or optimized mixtures. Copyright © 2010 Society of Chemical Industry     

Pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass by autohydrolysis and aqueous ammonia percolation

A two-stage biomass pretreatment process-a combination of autohydrolysis and aqueous ammonia percolation-was experimentally studied as a method to remove and recover hemicellulose from lignocellulosic biomass. Hemicellulose was completely separated from the biomass after 1 hr of autohydrolysis at 200‡C. As reaction temperature and/or time of autohydrolysis was increased in the range of 170-200‡C and 1–2.5 hr, respectively, the amount of hemicellulose solubilization was increased ; however, more sugars were decomposed. Most of the extracted hemicellulose was recovered as xylose oligomer. Hemicellulose was found to inhibit the enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose. When the biomass was consecutively pretreated with pure water at 180‡C for 30 min and with 10 wt% ammonia solution at 180‡C for 30 min, about 62% of the hemicellulose was extracted. The enzymatic digestibility of the pretreated biomass was as high as 95 %.     

两种木质素对纤维素酶水解的影响机制

为探究木质素对纤维素酶水解效率的影响,将苦竹中提取的乙醇木质素（EOL-B）和磨木木质素（MWL-B）作为模型物添加到微晶纤维素中进行酶吸附和水解。结果表明：添加8 g/L MWL-B使得反应72 h的葡萄糖得率从51.34%降低到46.06%;添加8 g/L EOL-B使得反应72 h葡萄糖得率从51.34%增加到61.06%。与MWL-B相比,EOL-B与纤维素酶蛋白之间亲和力和结合力较低,故纤维素酶在EOL-B上的非特异吸附更少。FT-IR和¹³C NMR分析表明：经乙醇处理后,木质素分子中C-C凝缩单元减少,β-O-4'键断裂,导致木质素分子的亲水性增加,阻断了与纤维素酶蛋白疏水性氨基酸的结合,对纤维素酶蛋白吸附量减少,从而使得纤维底物周围的酶蛋白浓度增加,水解率提高。     

Pretreatment of Lignocellulosic Wastes to Improve Ethanol and Biogas Production: A Review

Lignocelluloses are often a major or sometimes the sole components of different waste streams from various industries, forestry, agriculture and municipalities. Hydrolysis of these materials is the first step for either digestion to biogas (methane) or fermentation to ethanol. However, enzymatic hydrolysis of lignocelluloses with no pretreatment is usually not so effective because of high stability of the materials to enzymatic or bacterial attacks. The present work is dedicated to reviewing the methods that have been studied for pretreatment of lignocellulosic wastes for conversion to ethanol or biogas. Effective parameters in pretreatment of lignocelluloses, such as crystallinity, accessible surface area, and protection by lignin and hemicellulose are described first. Then, several pretreatment methods are discussed and their effects on improvement in ethanol and/or biogas production are described. They include milling, irradiation, microwave, steam explosion, ammonia fiber explosion (AFEX), supercritical CO₂ and its explosion, alkaline hydrolysis, liquid hot-water pretreatment, organosolv processes, wet oxidation, ozonolysis, dilute-and concentrated-acid hydrolyses, and biological pretreatments.     

Separation and recovery of the constituents from lignocellulosic biomass by using ionic liquids and acetic acid as co-solvents for mild hydrolysis

Previously, ionic liquids were found to partially dissolve lignocellulosic biomass. Here, it is reported that the biomass itself does not dissolve directly, but that it is hydrolyzed first before the constituents (cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin) dissolve into the ionic liquid. By addition of an acidic catalyst, this hydrolysis step can take place at milder conditions. Acetic acid is chosen as a suitable acidic catalyst, because it is already present in lignocellulosic biomass in the form of acetyl groups on the hemicellulose. Here, it is shown that acetic acid also works as co-solvent, increasing the solubility of the constituents of lignocellulosic biomass in the ionic liquid. The milder conditions for hydrolysis result in a higher degree of utilization of the lignocellulosic biomass, whereby all constituents can be fully recovered and further processed and the ionic liquid can be reused.     

木质纤维素类生物质制取燃料及化学品的研究进展

木质纤维素类生物质含有丰富的纤维素和半纤维素多糖,通过微生物发酵将它们转化为能源及高附加值的化学品,对于缓解全球能源危机带来的压力和解决环境污染问题具有重要意义。介绍了木质纤维素类生物质的结构特征;评述了预处理方法,包括稀酸、高温液态水蒸气爆破、CO2爆破、氨爆、碱法、有机溶剂法、生物处理法;重点介绍由生物质生产乙醇、丁醇及生物柴油的研究现状。指出开发高效环保的预处理方法、构建耐毒高产菌株和应用连续发酵或补料批式发酵方式等是加快木质纤维素类生物质发酵利用工业化进程的关键所在。