Efficient pretreatment of sugarcane bagasse via dilute mixed alkali salts (K2CO3/K2SO3) soaking for enhancing its enzymatic saccharification

Abstract

Abstract To decrease alkaline dosage and increase the enzymatic saccharification of sugarcane bagasse (SB), dilute mixed alkali salts soaking (0.5% K2CO3, 0.068% K2SO3) in an autoclave at 100–125 °C for 10–60 min was attempted to pretreat SB. The increased pretreatment severity at elevated temperatures resulted in the increase of delignification and enzymatic saccharification. It was found the optimum pretreatment temperature and pretreatment time were 120 °C for 40 min. Furthermore, FTIR, XRD and SEM characterized the porosity, morphology, and crystallinity changes of the pretreated SB samples. After the enzymatic in situ saccharification of 50 g/L SB in dilute K2CO3/K2SO3 (0.35% K2CO3, 0.048% K2SO3) media for 72 h, the reducing sugars and glucose could be obtained at 32.94 and 20.18 g/L, respectively. Finally, the SB-hydrolysates containing 20 g/L glucose were used for ethanol fermentation in the presence of dilute alkali salts. After 48 h, the ethanol yield was 0.394 g ethanol/g glucose, which represents 77.25% of the theoretical yield. In conclusion, an effective process about the biomass pretreatment, enzymatic saccharification and ethanol fermentation was successfully demonstrated in “one-pot” media containing low loading of alkali salts K2CO3/K2SO3.