Near-complete enzymatic hydrolysis efficiency of Miscanthus using hydrotropic fractionation at atmospheric pressure

Abstract

Enhanced enzymatic saccharification of Miscanthus (MC) biomass, based on a novel benzenesulfonic acid (BA)-induced fractionation at mild condition as the pretreatment, gives a good example for the efficient transformation of energy crops into value-added products with minimal environmental impact. The results indicated that BA could facilitate the rapid and high solubilization of both lignin and hemicellulose, approximately 90.8 % of lignin and 75.5 % of hemicellulose were removed at 80 °C within 20 min. Consequently, the subsequent enzymatic hydrolysis efficiency was greatly enhanced to obtain an improved enzymatic digestibility with a high glucose yield of 97.9 %. Our study opens up an innovative avenue for the efficient valorization of the recalcitrant energy crops as MC.