EVALUATION OF ALKALINE PRETREATMENT ON THE ENZYMATIC HYDROLYSIS OF CARNAUBA STRAW RESIDUE

Abstract

Carnauba (Copernicia prunifera) straw residue generated from production of its wax is rich in cellulose, thus showing a potential use in the production of second generation ethanol. However, the high lignin and hemicellulose load associated with cellulose makes it difficult the enzymatic attack, thus having the need of an adequate pretreatment of this material. The objective of this study was to optimize the enzymatic hydrolysis of carnauba straw residue, focusing on the alkaline biomass pretreatment. Therefore, NaOH solutions at concentrations of 1.0% (w/v) (PA1), 2.0% (w/v) (PA2), 3.0% (w/v) (PA3) and 4.0% (w/v) (PA4) were used. The chemical and physical characterization of natural and pre-treated carnauba straw were according to the NREL, and DRX and FTIR performed analyzes. The materials chemical characterization showed that all the used pretreatments were able to remove a significant amount of lignin and hemicellulose, which can improve the enzymes access, favoring the increase of cellulose conversion. In relation to DRX analysis an increase in crystallinity index happens reaching up to 55.15% after the pretreatment PA4, which may be associated to the removal of hemicellulose and amorphous lignin, related to cellulose. After a period of 96 hours of enzymatic hydrolysis, the PA4 pretreated residue showed the best performance with a cellulosic conversion of 78%. Spite of a slightly lower performance of the residue that presented higher cellulose conversion, the pretreated material PA2 is an alternative to reduce costs in the cellulosic ethanol production.