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Abstract
This paper discusses a property associated with plant biomass recalcitrance to enzyme and microbial deconstructions in sugar production from cellulose and hemicelluloses. The hemicelluloses are more readily hydrolyzed to sugars than is cellulose. As a result, optimization to maximize individual glucose and hemicellulose sugar recovery is not possible. This property is an inherent feature of plant biomass and is named polydispersity of plant biomass recalcitrance (PPBR) in this study. A set of pretreatment experiments using eucalyptus and sulfite pretreatment to overcome recalcitrance of lignocelluloses was conducted. The results were used to predict the conditions for individually maximizing enzymatic glucose and xylose yields. The predicted maximal yields were used to quantitatively illustrate the PPBR concept. The effect of PPBR on pretreatment optimization and strategies for maximal sugar recovery using two-stage pretreatment are discussed.
Keywords
Biomass recalcitrance,
pretreatment,
optimization,
sugar recovery,
enzymatic hydrolysis,
saccharification,
sugars,
cellulose,
biomass,
pretreatment,
hydrolysis,
lignocellulose,
biodegradation,
enzymes,
biotechnology,
industrial applications,
lignin,
hemicellulose,
Eucalyptus,
feedstock,
glucose,
mathematical optimization,
Eucalyptus grandis,
ethanol,
fuel,
wood,
biomass energy,
SPORL,
bioconversion,
biorefining,
chemical utilization,
wood extractives,
cellulosic materials,
xylose,
polydispersity,
alcohol,
biomass fuel
Citation
Zhu, J.Y.; Verrill, Steve P.; Liu, Hao; Herian, Victoria L.; Pan, Xuejun; Rockwood, Donald L. 2011. On polydispersity of plant biomass recalcitrance and its effects on pretreatment optimization for sugar production. Bioenergy research. Vol. 4, no. 3 (Sept. 2011): p. 201-210.
