Hydrolysate production from sugarcane bagasse using steam explosion and sequential steam explosion-dilute acid pretreatment for polyhydroxyalkanoate fermentation

Abstract

Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are potential alternatives to conventional petroleum-based plastics. One of the barriers to the commercialization of PHAs is its high production cost, which is primarily due to substrate. Agricultural lignocellulosic residues, such as sugarcane bagasse, can be used as substrates to lower production costs. In order to effectively convert the substrate to PHA, sugarcane bagasse must be pretreated. In this study, steam explosion and sequential steam explosion–dilute H2SO4 pretreatment of sugarcane bagasse were optimized to effectively release reducing sugars through enzymatic hydrolysis. Experiments using response surface methodology (RSM) revealed that steam temperature had the greatest influence on lowering sugar content for both sequential and steam explosion pretreatments. The optimum steam explosion conditions were 230 °C steam temperature and 701 s holding time. The concentration of reducing sugars in the enzymatic hydrolysate produced by the hydrolysis of steam-exploded sugarcane bagasse was 6.91 g/L (46.07% yield). On the other hand, the optimum conditions for sequential pretreatment were 230 °C steam explosion temperature, 137 °C dilute acid temperature, 42 min of dilute acid reaction time, and 4.75% w/v H2SO4 concentration, resulting in a hydrolysate with a reducing sugar content of 12.89 g/L (85.93% yield). When steam explosion and diluted H2SO4 pretreatment were combined, a yield increase of reducing sugar of 87% was observed. PHA in the form of polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) was successfully synthesized using the hydrolysate through bacterial fermentation, with a concentration of 1.99 g/L (16.79% yield) after 24 h. As a result, sequential pretreatment was effective in producing enzymatic hydrolysates from sugarcane bagasse that could be utilized to produce PHA.