The effect of delignification of forest biomass on enzymatic hydrolysis

Effect of lignin chemistry on the enzymatic hydrolysis of woody biomass

The impact of lignin-derived inhibition on enzymatic hydrolysis is investigated by using lignins isolated from untreated woods and pretreated wood pulps. A new method, biomass reconstruction, for which isolated lignins are precipitated onto bleached pulps to mimic lignocellulosic biomass, is introduced, for the first time, to decouple the lignin distribution issue from lignin chemistry. Isolated lignins are physically mixed and reconstructed with bleached pulps. Lignins obtained from pretreated woods adsorb two to six times more cellulase than lignins obtained from untreated woods. The higher adsorption of enzymes on lignin correlates with decreased carbohydrate conversion in enzymatic hydrolysis. In addition, the reconstructed softwood substrate has a lower carbohydrate conversion than the reconstructed hardwood substrate. The degree of condensation of lignin increases significantly after pretreatment, especially with softwood lignins. In this study, the degree of condensation of lignin (0.02 to 0.64) and total OH groups in lignin (1.7 to 1.1) have a critical impact on cellulase adsorption (9 to 70%) and enzymatic hydrolysis (83.2 to 58.2%); this may provide insights into the more recalcitrant nature of softwood substrates.

Combined sodium hydroxide and ammonium hydroxide pretreatment of post-biogas digestion dairy manure fiber for cost effective cellulosic bioethanol production

Background

The current higher manufacturing cost of biofuels production from lignocellulosics hinders the commercial process development. Although many approaches for reducing the manufacturing cost of cellulosic biofuels may be considered, the use of less expensive feedstocks may represent the largest impact. In the present study, we investigated the use of a low cost feedstock: post-biogas digestion dairy manure fiber. We used an innovative pretreatment procedure that combines dilute sodium hydroxide with supplementary aqueous ammonia, with the goal of releasing fermentable sugar for ethanol fermentation.

Results

Post-biogas digestion manure fiber were found to contain 41.1% total carbohydrates, 29.4% lignin, 13.7% ash, and 11.7% extractives on dry basis. Chemical treatment were applied using varying amounts of NaOH and NH3 (2-10% loadings of each alkali on dry solids) at mild conditions of 100°C for 5 min, which led to a reduction in lignin of 16-40%. Increasing treatment severity conditions to 121°C for 60 min improved delignification to 17-67%, but also solubilized significant amounts of the carbohydrates. A modified severity parameter model was used to determine the delignification efficiency of manure fiber during alkaline pretreatment. The linear model well predicted the experimental values of fiber delignification for all pretreatment methods (R2 > 0.94). Enzymatic digestion of the treated fibers attained 15-50% saccharification for the low severity treatment, whereas the high severity treatment achieved up to 2-fold higher saccharification. Pretreatment with NaOH alone at a variety of concentrations and temperatures provide low delignification levels of only 5 − 21% and low saccharification yields of 3 − 8%, whereas pretreatment with the combination of NaOH and NH3 improved delignification levels and saccharification yields 2–3.5 higher than pretreatment with NH3 alone. Additionally, the combined NaOH and NH3 pretreatment led to noticeable changes in fiber morphology as determined by SEM and CrI measurements.

Conclusions

We show that combined alkaline treatment by NaOH and NH3 improves the delignification and enzymatic digestibility of anaerobically digested manure fibers. Although pretreatment leads to acceptable saccharification for this low-cost feedstock, the high chemical consumption costs of the process likely will require recovery and reuse of the treatment chemicals, prior to this process being economically feasibility.

Current challenges in commercially producing biofuels from lignocellulosic biomass

Biofuels that are produced from biobased materials are a good alternative to petroleum based fuels. They offer several benefits to society and the environment. Producing second generation biofuels is even more challenging than producing first generation biofuels due the complexity of the biomass and issues related to producing, harvesting, and transporting less dense biomass to centralized biorefineries. In addition to this logistic challenge, other challenges with respect to processing steps in converting biomass to liquid transportation fuel like pretreatment, hydrolysis, microbial fermentation, and fuel separation still exist and are discussed in this review. The possible coproducts that could be produced in the biorefinery and their importance to reduce the processing cost of biofuel are discussed. About $1 billion was spent in the year 2012 by the government agencies in US to meet the mandate to replace 30% existing liquid transportation fuels by 2022 which is 36 billion gallons/year. Other countries in the world have set their own targets to replace petroleum fuel by biofuels. Because of the challenges listed in this review and lack of government policies to create the demand for biofuels, it may take more time for the lignocellulosic biofuels to hit the market place than previously projected.

Physicochemical pretreatments and hydrolysis of furfural residues via carbon-based sulfonated solid acid

Potential commercial physicochemical pretreatment methods, NaOH/microwave and NaOH/ultrasound were developed, and the carbon-based sulfonated solid acid catalysts were prepared for furfural residues conversion into reducing sugars. After the two optimum pretreatments, both the content of cellulose increased (74.03%, 72.28%, respectively) and the content of hemicellulose (94.11%, 94.17% of removal rate, respectively) and lignin (91.75%, 92.09% of removal rate, respectively) decreased in furfural residues. The reducing sugar yields of furfural residues with the two physicochemical pretreatments on coal tar-based solid acid reached 33.94% and 33.13%, respectively, higher than that pretreated via NaOH alone (27%) and comparable to that pretreated via NaOH/H2O2 (35.67%). The XRD patterns, IR spectra and SEM images show microwave and ultrasound improve the pretreatment effect. The results demonstrate the carbon-based sulfonated solid acids and the physicochemical pretreatments are green, effective, low-cost for furfural residues conversion.

Pretreatment with laccase and a phenolic mediator degrades lignin and enhances saccharification of Eucalyptus feedstock

BACKGROUND

Biofuel production from lignocellulosic material is hampered by biomass recalcitrance towards enzymatic hydrolysis due to the compact architecture of the plant cell wall and the presence of lignin. The purpose of this work is to study the ability of an industrially available laccase-mediator system to modify and remove lignin during pretreatment of wood (Eucalyptus globulus) feedstock, thus improving saccharification, and to analyze the chemical modifications produced in the whole material and especially in the recalcitrant lignin moiety.

RESULTS

Up to 50% lignin removal from ground eucalypt wood was attained by pretreatment with recombinant Myceliophthora thermophila laccase and methyl syringate as mediator, followed by alkaline peroxide extraction in a multistage sequence. The lignin removal directly correlated with increases (approximately 40%) in glucose and xylose yields after enzymatic hydrolysis. The pretreatment using laccase alone (without mediator) removed up to 20% of lignin from eucalypt wood. Pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry of the pretreated wood revealed modifications of the lignin polymer, as shown by lignin markers with shortened side chains and increased syringyl-to-guaiacyl ratio. Additional information on the chemical modifications produced was obtained by two-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance of the whole wood swollen in dimethylsulfoxide-d6. The spectra obtained revealed the removal of guaiacyl and syringyl lignin units, although with a preferential removal of the former, and the lower number of aliphatic side-chains per phenylpropane unit (involved in main β-O-4' and β-β' inter-unit linkages), in agreement with the pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry results, without a substantial change in the wood polysaccharide signals. However, the most noticeable modification observed in the spectra was the formation of Cα-oxidized syringyl lignin units during the enzymatic treatment. Further insight into the modifications of lignin structure, affecting other inter-unit linkages and oxidized structures, was attained by nuclear magnetic resonance of the lignins isolated from the eucalypt feedstock after the enzymatic pretreatments.

CONCLUSIONS

This work shows the potential of an oxidative enzymatic pretreatment to delignify and improve cellulase saccharification of a hardwood feedstock (eucalypt wood) when applied directly on the ground lignocellulosic material, and reveals the main chemical changes in the pretreated material, and its recalcitrant lignin moiety, behind the above results.

Pretreatment of corn stover for sugar production using dilute hydrochloric acid followed by lime

In this study, a two stage process was evaluated to increase the sugar recovery. Firstly, corn stover was treated with diluted hydrochloric acid to maximize the xylose yield, and then the residue was treated with lime to alter the lignin structure and swell the cellulose surface. The optimal condition was 120 °C and 40 min for diluted hydrochloric acid pretreatment followed by lime pretreatment at 60 °C for 12h with lime loading at 0.1 g/g of substrate. The glucose and xylose yield was 78.0% and 97.0%, respectively, with cellulase dosage at 5 FPU/g of substrate. The total glucose yield increased to 85.9% when the cellulase loading was increased to 10 FPU/g of substrate. This two stage process was effective due to the swelling of the internal surface, an increase in the porosity and a decrease in the degree of polymerization.

Comparison of different mechanical refining technologies on the enzymatic digestibility of low severity acid pretreated corn stover

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.

Improvement of the enzymatic hydrolysis of furfural residues by pretreatment with combined green liquor and hydrogen peroxide

A potential commercial pretreatment for furfural residues (FRs) was investigated by using a combination of green liquor and hydrogen peroxide (GL-H2O2). The results showed that 56.2% of lignin removal was achieved when the sample was treated with 0.6 g H2O2/g-DS (dry substrate) and 6 mL GL/g-DS at 80 °C for 3 h. After 96 h hydrolysis with 18 FPU/g-cellulose for cellulase, 27 CBU/g-cellulose for β-glucosidase, the glucose yield increased from 71.2% to 83.6%. Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid was used to reduce the degradation of H2O2, the glucose yield increased to 90.4% after the addition of 1% (w/w). The untreated FRs could bind more easily to cellulase than pretreated FRs could. The structural changes on the surface of sample were characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The results indicated that the surface lignin could be effectively removed during pretreatment, thereby decreasing the enzyme-lignin binding activity. Moreover, the carbonyl from lignin plays an important role in cellulase binding.

Quantification of bound and free enzymes during enzymatic hydrolysis and their reactivities on cellulose and lignocellulose

Enzymatic hydrolysis of insoluble biomass is a surface reaction. Part of the enzyme adsorb on the surface of biomass, whereas the others stay in the liquid phase. In this study, three substrates (Avicel cellulose, bleached hardwood pulp, and green-liquor pretreated hardwood pulp) were used to study the reactivity of bound and free enzyme. In a continuous enzymatic hydrolysis, 35-65% initially added enzymes became bound enzymes, which were primarily responsible for enzymatic hydrolysis. The contribution from free enzymes became insignificant after a certain period of reaction time. SDS-PAGE analysis showed that CBH I was significantly decreased in the free enzyme, which might be the reason for the low digestibility of free enzymes due to the loss of synergistic effect. When Tween 80 was added during enzymatic hydrolysis, the digestibility of free enzyme on Avicel was greatly enhanced. However, the benefit of surfactant was not noticeable for lignocellulosic pulps, comparing to Avicel.

Enhancement in enzymatic hydrolysis by mechanical refining for pretreated hardwood lignocellulosics

This study investigated the effectiveness of mechanical refining to overcome the biomass recalcitrance barrier. Laboratory scale refining was conducted via PFI mill and valley beater refiners using green liquor and Kraft hardwood pulps. A strong positive correlation was determined between sugar recovery and water retention value. Refining produced significant improvements in enzymatic hydrolysis yield relative to unrefined substrates (e.g., sugar recovery increase from 67% to 90%, for 15% lignin Kraft pulp). A maximum absolute enzymatic hydrolysis improvement with refining was observed at enzymatic hydrolysis conditions that produced intermediate conversion levels. For a 91% target sugar conversion, PFI refining at 4000 revolutions allowed for a 32% reduction in enzyme charge for 15% lignin content hardwood Kraft pulp and 96 h hydrolysis time, compared to the unrefined material.

Impact of bleaching on subcritical water- and Formosolv-pretreated tulip tree to enhance enzyme accessibility

A novel method was developed for fractionating cellulose microfibrils from forest residue (tulip tree sawdust) to enhance cellulose digestibility, particularly at minimum enzyme loadings. This method involved three main stages: selective hemicellulose solubilization by subcritical water (SCW) pretreatment, delignification of the SCW-pretreated solids using the Formosolv process, and deformylation/bleaching of the cellulose pulp with alkaline hydrogen peroxide solution. This process produced nearly 98% white cellulose microfibrils with 23-fold higher conversion to glucose as compared to the raw substrate after 72 h of enzymatic hydrolysis. This study showed that cellulose swelling had the greatest effect on the enzymatic hydrolysis efficiency of delignified pulp obtained by the Formosolv process.

Tissue-specific cell wall hydration in sugarcane stalks

Plant cell walls contain water, especially under biological and wet processing conditions. The present work characterizes this water in tissues of sugarcane stalks. Environmental scanning electron microscopy shows tissue deformation upon drying. Dynamic vapor sorption determines the equilibrium and kinetics of moisture uptake. Thermoporometry by differential scanning calorimetry quantifies water in nanoscale pores. Results show that cell walls from top internodes of stalks are more deformable, slightly more sorptive to moisture, and substantially more porous. These differences of top internode are attributed to less lignified walls, which is confirmed by lower infrared spectral signal from aromatics. Furthermore, cell wall nanoscale porosity, an architectural and not directly compositional characteristic, is shown to be tissue-specific. Nanoscale porosities are ranked as follows: pith parenchyma > pith vascular bundles > rind. This ranking coincides with wall reactivity and digestibility in grasses, suggesting that nanoscale porosity is a major determinant of wall recalcitrance.

Comparison of sodium carbonate pretreatment for enzymatic hydrolysis of wheat straw stem and leaf to produce fermentable sugars

The specific characteristics of biomass structure and chemical composition of straw stem and leaf may result in different behavior of pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis. In this work, sodium carbonate (SC) was employed as a pretreatment to improve the enzymatic digestibility of wheat straw. The chemical composition and enzymatic hydrolysis of wheat straw stem and leaf (sheath included) were investigated comparatively. Most of the polysaccharides are kept in the solid fractions after SC pretreatment, while the stem has better delignification selectivity than leaf at high temperature. The enzymatic hydrolysis efficiency of wheat straw leaf is significantly higher than that of stem. The maximum total sugar yield from SC pretreated leaf was about 16% higher than stem. The results show that sodium carbonate is of great potential to be used as a pretreatment for the production of bioethanol from straw handling waste in a straw pulp mill with a low feedstock cost.

Sodium sulfite-formaldehyde pretreatment of mixed hardwoods and its effect on enzymatic hydrolysis

In this work, mixed hardwoods were pretreated by sodium sulfite-formaldehyde (SF). The effects of SF pretreatment on the chemical compositions and enzymatic hydrolysis of mixed hardwoods were investigated. SF pretreatment temperature had a significant effect on pulp yield and delignification, resulting in an increased efficiency of enzymatic hydrolysis. After 96 h of enzymatic hydrolysis at the cellulase loading of 40 FPU/g substrate, the yields of glucan and xylan on the basis of original wood were 37% and 11% for the pulp produced with 12% sulfite charge at 170 °C for 2 h. The total sugar recovery based on the sugar in original wood was 74%. These results indicate that sulfite-formaldehyde cooking is of great potential to be a pretreatment method for a greenfield mill to produce fuel ethanol from hardwood.

Combined alkali and acid pretreatment of spent mushroom substrate for reducing sugar and biofertilizer production

Spent mushroom substrate (SMS) was pretreated with alkaline reagents including potassium hydroxide, lime and ammonia to enhance enzymatic saccharification. Under the best pretreatment conditions (1M KOH, 80 °C, 90 min; 1M lime, 80 °C, 120 min; 10 M ammonia, 70 °C, 120 min), the total reducing sugar (TRS) yield reached 258.6, 204.2 and 251.2 mg/g raw SMS, which were respectively 6.15, 4.86, and 5.98 times of untreated SMS. The effects of pretreatment by above alkaline reagents and sulfuric acid on the composition and structure of SMS were evaluated to provide comparative performance data. A new process, combined alkali and acid (CAA) pretreatment followed by enzymatic hydrolysis, was innovatively proposed to improve the cost-effectiveness and avoid environmental problems. The SMS residue after CAA pretreatment-enzymatic hydrolysis process was converted to biofertilizer with Pichia farinose FL7 and a cell density of 3.0×10(8) cfu/g in biomass was attained.

Effect of different pretreatments on delignification pattern and enzymatic hydrolysability of miscanthus, oil palm biomass and typha grass

Cumulative pretreatments methods were evaluated for delignification ability and enzymatic digestibility using miscanthus (M×G), empty palm fruit bunch (EFB) and typha grass as feedstocks. Despite their close chemical composition, the three feedstocks unveiled quite different behavior under the same condition of pretreatment. Characterization of ethanol organosol lignins extracted from the three feedstocks by (13)C NMR and FTIR revealed information concerning S/G/H ratios which was important to rationalize the differences among the feedstock behavior. The S/G/H ratios for MxG, EFB and typha, were established to levels of ~52/44/4, ~68/30/2 and ~46/27/27 respectively. The xylans hydrolytic susceptibility were a major cause of difference in behavior of feedstock during the pretreatment process. The influence of the presence of naphthol during autohydrolysis on the delignification ability was studied. A good relationship was observed between S+H/G ratio and the scavenging effect of naphthol.

Sugarcane bagasse ozonolysis pretreatment: effect on enzymatic digestibility and inhibitory compound formation

Sugarcane bagasse was pretreated with ozone to increase lignocellulosic material digestibility. Bagasse was ozonated in a fixed bed reactor at room temperature, and the effect of the two major parameters, ozone concentration and sample moisture, was studied. Acid insoluble and total lignin decreased whereas acid soluble lignin increased in all experiments. Pretreatment barely attacked carbohydrates, with cellulose and xylan recovery rates being >92%. Ozonolysis increased fermentable carbohydrate release considerably during enzymatic hydrolysis. Glucose and xylose yields increased from 6.64% and 2.05%, for raw bagasse, to 41.79% and 52.44% under the best experimental conditions. Only xylitol, lactic, formic and acetic acid degradation compounds were found, with neither furfural nor HMF (5-hydroxymethylfurfural) being detected. Washing detoxification provided inhibitor removal percentages above 85%, increasing glucose hydrolysis, but decreasing xylose yield by xylan solubilization. SEM analysis showed structural changes after ozonization and washing.

Bioconversion of sawdust into ethanol using dilute sulfuric acid-assisted continuous twin screw-driven reactor pretreatment and fed-batch simultaneous saccharification and fermentation

Ethanol production from poplar sawdust using sulfuric acid-assisted continuous twin screw-driven reactor (CTSR) pretreatment followed by simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) was investigated. Pretreatment with high acid concentration increased the cellulose content in the pretreated solid (74.9-76.9% in the range of 4.0-5.5wt.% H(2)SO(4)). The sugar content (XMG; xylan+mannan+galactan) in the treated-solid was 11.1-15.2% and 0.9-5.7% with 0.5wt.% and 7.0wt.%, respectively. The XMG recovery yield of the sample treated with 4.0wt.% H(2)SO(4) at 185°C was maximized at 88.6%. Enzymatic hydrolysis test showed a cellulose digestibility of 67.1%, 70.1%, and 73.6% with 15, 30, and 45FPU/g-cellulose, respectively. In the fed-batch SSF tests with initial enzyme addition, the ethanol yield of each stage almost reached a maximum at 28h, 48h, and 56h, respectively, with yields of 63.9% (16.5g/L), 78.4% (30.1g/L), and 81.7% (39.9g/L), respectively.

Enhancement of enzymatic digestibility of Eucalyptus grandis pretreated by NaOH catalyzed steam explosion

NaOH catalyzed steam explosion was applied to improve the enzymatic digestibility of Eucalyptus grandis. The impregnation of wood chip with NaOH solutions before steam explosion was carried out to investigate the effects of alkaline catalysis on solid recovery, enzymatic digestibility, and glucose recovery. The lignin removal was significantly affected by NaOH as a catalyst and the glucose recovery increased with increased severity index. The use of NaOH showed higher enzymatic digestibility than the use of water at most severity indexes due to the delignification of biomass and the increase of accessibility to cellulose of enzyme. The maximum glucose recovery was 65.55% having 4.4361 of severity index with 7wt.% of NaOH catalyzed steam explosion at 210°C during 9min. NaOH catalyzed steam explosion was effective to enhance the enzymatic digestibility due to the removal of lignin.

Green liquor pretreatment for improving enzymatic hydrolysis of corn stover

Green liquor consists of sodium carbonate and sodium sulfide and is readily available in any kraft mills. The green liquor pretreatment process for bioethanol production was developed for wood chips. This process uses only proven technology and equipment currently used in a kraft pulp mill and has several additional advantages such as high sugar recovery and concentration, no inhibitive substances produced, as compared to acid-based pretreatment methods. The liquor was used to pretreat corn stover for enhancing enzymatic hydrolysis in bioethanol production. Pulp yield of 70% with 45% lignin removal was achieved under optimized conditions (8% total titratable alkali, 40% sulfidity and 140°C). About 70% of the original polysaccharides were converted into fermentable sugars, using 20 FPU/g-pulp of enzyme in the subsequent enzymatic hydrolysis. The result indicates that green liquor is a feasible pretreatment to improve the enzymatic saccharification of corn stover for bioethanol production.

Effects of SPORL and dilute acid pretreatment on substrate morphology, cell physical and chemical wall structures, and subsequent enzymatic hydrolysis of lodgepole pine

The effects of pretreatment by dilute acid and sulfite pretreatment to overcome recalcitrance of lignocellulose (SPORL) on substrate morphology, cell wall physical and chemical structures, along with the subsequent enzymatic hydrolysis of lodgepole pine substrate were investigated. FE-SEM and TEM images of substrate structural morphological changes showed that SPORL pretreatment resulted in fiber separation, where SPORL high pH (4.2) pretreatment exhibited better fiber separation than SPORL low pH (1.9) pretreatment. Dilute acid pretreatment produced very poor fiber separation, consisting mostly of fiber bundles. The removal of almost all hemicelluloses in the dilute acid pretreated substrate did not overcome recalcitrance to achieve a high cellulose conversion when lignin removal was limited. SPORL high pH pretreatment removed more lignin but less hemicellulose, while SPORL low pH pretreatment removed about the same amount of lignin and hemicelluloses in lodgepole pine substrates when compared with dilute acid pretreatment. Substrates pretreated with either SPORL process had a much higher cellulose conversion than those produced with dilute acid pretreatment. Lignin removal in addition to removal of hemicellulose in SPORL pretreatment plays an important role in improving the cellulose hydrolysis of the substrate.

Demonstration of laccase-based removal of lignin from wood and non-wood plant feedstocks

The ability of Trametes villosa laccase, in conjuction with 1-hydroxybenzotriazole (HBT) as mediator and alkaline extraction, to remove lignin was demonstrated during treatment of wood (Eucalyptus globulus) and non-wood (Pennisetum purpureum) feedstocks. At 50 Ug(-1) laccase and 2.5% HBT concentration, 48% and 32% of the Eucalyptus and Pennisetum lignin were removed, respectively. Two-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance of the feedstocks, swollen in dimethylsulfoxide-d(6), revealed the removal of p-hydroxyphenyl, guaiacyl and syringyl lignin units and aliphatic (mainly β-O-4'-linked) side-chains of lignin, and a moderate removal of p-coumaric acid (present in Pennisetum) without a substantial change in polysaccharide cross-signals. The enzymatic pretreatment (at 25 Ug(-1)) of Eucalyptus and Pennisetum feedstocks increased the glucose (by 61% and 12% in 72 h) and ethanol (by 4 and 2 g L(-1) in 17 h) yields from both lignocellulosic materials, respectively, as compared to those without enzyme treatment.

Impact of hardwood species on production cost of second generation ethanol

The present work targeted the understanding of the influence of nine different hardwood species as feedstock on ethanol production yield and costs. It was found that the minimum ethanol revenue (MER) ($ per gallon to the producer) to achieve a 12% internal rate of return (IRR) on invested capital was smaller for low lignin content samples and the influence of species characteristics remained restricted to high residual lignin content. We show that if the pretreatment being applied to the feedstock targets or is limited to low lignin removal, one can expect the species to have a significant impact on overall economics, playing important role to project success. This study also showed a variation of up to 40% in relative MER among hardwood species, where maple, globulus and sweet gum varied the least. Sensitivity analysis showed ethanol yield per ton of feedstock had the largest influence in MER, followed by CAPEX.

Effect of mixing on enzymatic hydrolysis of cardboard waste: saccharification yield and subsequent separation of the solid residue using a pressure filter

Cellulosic wastes, from sources such as low-quality cardboard and paper, are regarded as potential feedstocks for bioethanol production. One pathway from these cellulosic materials to ethanol is saccharification (hydrolysis) followed by fermentation. Saccharification is commonly performed using enzymes that are able to cleave the cellulosic structure to smaller units, preferably to glucose monomers. During the hydrolysis, mixing conditions have a considerable impact on the performance of the enzymes. Thus mixing conditions in the hydrolysis tank can also influence the downstream operations and, consequently, the overall economy of the bioethanol process. In this experimental study, four types of impeller, at different hydrolysis conditions were used. The effect of mixing on the glucose yield and on the filtration characteristics of the hydrolysate was evaluated. It was shown that not only the sugar yield depended on the mixing conditions: the effect on the solid-liquid separation step was even more significant.

Effects of hardwood structural and chemical characteristics on enzymatic hydrolysis for biofuel production

This study investigated the influence of various hardwood characteristics on enzymatic hydrolysis. Important hardwood species, including three Eucalyptus species, were comprehensively characterized using quantitative (13)C NMR, image analysis and fiber quality analysis. Hydrolysis efficiency from all the hardwoods was correlated to the wood chemical composition and lignin characteristics. Among the key wood components that control enzymatic hydrolysis efficiency, lignin content, enzyme adsorption on substrate and, the ratio of syringyl/guaiacyl (S/G) of the pretreated feedstock were identified as the most important. No wood morphological feature was found to have a significant influence on enzymatic conversion of the pretreated samples.