Effects of aluminum chloride-catalyzed hydrothermal pretreatment on the structural characteristics of lignin and enzymatic hydrolysis

Abstract

In this study, Eucalyptus camaldulensis was pretreated with 0.02M aluminum chloride (AlCl3) at 140–180°C to obtain digestible substrates for glucose and lignin. The effects of AlCl3-catalyzed hydrothermal pretreatment on the degradation of carbohydrates, structural changes of lignin, crystallinity, morphologic changes, and cellulose conversion of the pretreated biomass have been investigated by HAPEC, HPLC, FT-IR, XRD, CP/MAS NMR, SEM, and 2D-HSQC NMR. Results showed that the pretreatment significantly removed hemicelluloses and cleaved β-O-4 linkages of lignin at high temperatures. Under an optimum condition (at 170°C for 1h), almost all of hemicelluloses were removed and most of β-O-4 linkages in lignin were cleaved, and 77.8% cellulose conversion of the pretreated biomass was achieved, which was 7.3-fold higher than that of the original biomass. In short, this process was regarded as a promising approach to achieve an efficient conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to fermentable glucose and residual lignin.