Abstract
During pretreatment, the pretreatment pH often plays an important role in removing hemicelluloses and lignin for improving the conversion of biomass to sugars. In this study, corn stover was subjected to magnesium bisulfite pretreatment (MBSP) under various pH conditions. The obtained data showed that the hemicelluloses and lignin were solubilized by MBSP, which led to changes in the structural and chemical properties of the pretreated material. The pretreatment pH could alter the existing forms of SO2, and magnesium bisulfite was the most effective reagent for removing lignin. A relatively neutral MBSP (pH 5.13) not only considerably improved the enzymatic hydrolysis yield (80.18%), but also produced a large amount of high-value xylo-oligosaccharides in the spent liquor. Furthermore, only the hemicellulose removal showed a linear relationship with the enzymatic hydrolysis yield. These results suggest that removal of all the lignin might not be necessary to improve the hydrolysis efficiency.
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