Acid-Alkaline Two-Stage Pretreatments of Corn Stover for Enhancing Enzymatic Saccharification

Abstract

For the enzymatic saccharification of lignocellulosic biomass, single acid or alkaline pretreatment is not satisfactory because of the low sugar yields together with the neutralization of residual chemicals before enzymatic hydrolysis. Herein, an acid-alkaline two-stage pretreatment process was designed to treat corn stover. During the process, the pretreated liquid from the first stage and the solid residues from the second stage were mixed together for the subsequent simultaneous enzymatic hydrolysis, where a mixture of cellulase with an activity loading of 20 FPU/g substrate, cellobiase with an activity loading of 5 U/g substrate, and xylanase with an activity loading of 200 U/g substrate was used. Compared to the single acid or alkaline pretreatment, the acid-alkaline two-stage pretreatment could significantly improve the enzymatic saccharification, and 91.2% glucose yield with 52.56% of the theoretical total reducing sugar yield was achieved after the subsequent enzymatic hydrolysis.