Acid and alkali pretreatment of corn stalk for fractal‐like kinetic analysis of enzymatic saccharification

Abstract

AbstractBACKGROUNDThe conversion of lignocellulose to sugar is part of the process of lignocellulose biorefining and, therefore, is crucial for effective lignocellulose utilization.RESULTSIn this study, alkali and acidic pretreatments were carried out to deconstruct corn stalk (CS) material for efficient subsequent enzymatic saccharification. Most xylan and lignin can be removed from CS material by acid and alkali pretreatments, respectively, as verified by XRD (X‐ray diffractometer) and FT‐IR (Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy) analyses. Fractal‐like kinetics were assessed to analyze the effect of enzyme loading on the glucose and xylose sugar yields from the two pretreated CS materials, with fractal dimension considered as a dominant factor in rate constant decrease. Fractal dimension analysis demonstrated that the alkali pretreated CS was more easily hydrolyzed that the acid pretreated CS. For glucan hydrolysis, the effect of enzyme loading on the rate constant of the alkali pretreated CS was marginally higher than that of the acid pretreated CS. For xylan hydrolysis, enzyme loading was shown to significantly improve the rate constant of the alkali pretreated CS compared to the acid pretreated CS. Furthermore, the developed fractal‐like model exhibits high prediction accuracy for sugar yield at high enzyme loadings.CONCLUSIONThe application of the fractal‐like theory was quite successful for studying enzymatic kinetics. © 2022 Society of Chemical Industry (SCI).