Modification of lignin by various additives to mitigate lignin inhibition for improved enzymatic digestibility of dilute acid pretreated hardwood

Abstract

During acidic pretreatment of renewable lignocellulosic biomass, lignin depolymerization/repolymerization reactions often occur, which intensifies lignin inhibition on cellulose hydrolysis generally through lignin-derived inhibitors formation, unproductive binding and physical blockage effect. In order to improve the enzymatic digestibility of dilute acid pretreated hardwood, in this work various additives were compared and their inhibition mitigating effects were examined. It was revealed that 2-naphthol addition reduced the formation of inhibitory derivatives from lignin, thus increasing the enzymatic hydrolysis yield of the whole slurry after dilute acid pretreatment. The addition of phenolic acids largely diminished enzyme binding effect of the insoluble lignin. Moreover, the 2-naphthol-7-sulfonate additive led to the most pronounced mitigation on physical blockage effect of lignin, as XPS and SEM results showed the significant removal of surface lignin. This work revealed the different mechanisms of various additives in mitigating lignin inhibition, and provided a better understanding on utilizing proper additives to improve biomass saccharification for biorefinery applications.