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Abstract
Pretreatment of biomass with dilute acid requires high temperatures of >160 °C to remove xylan and does not remove lignin. Here we report that the addition of peracetic acid, a strong oxidant, to mild dilute acid pretreatment reduces the temperature requirement to only 120 °C. Pretreatment of yellow poplar with peracetic acid (300 mM, 2.3 wt%) and dilute sulfuric acid (100 mM, 1.0 wt%) at 120 °C for 5 min removed 85.7% of the xylan and 90.4% of the lignin leaving a solid consisting of 75.6% glucan, 6.0% xylan and 4.7% lignin. Low enzyme loadings of 5 FPU/g glucan and 10 pNPGU/g glucan converted this solid to glucose with an 84.0% yield. This amount of glucose was 2.5 times higher than with dilute acid-pretreated solid and 13.8 times higher than with untreated yellow poplar. Thus, the addition of peracetic acid, easily generated from acetic acid and hydrogen peroxide, dramatically increases the effectiveness of dilute acid pretreatment of biomass.
Highlights
Lignocellulosic biomass is a sustainable, abundant and low-cost resource
Pretreatment with peracetic acid at 80 °C improved the cellulose digestibility of sugarcane bagasse[15] and pretreatment with hydrogen peroxide-acetic acid mixtures, which generate peracetic acid in situ, at 80 °C was increased the enzymatic digestibility of rice straw, pine wood and oak wood as compared to dilute acid pretreatment[16]
Two-step pretreatment with alkali followed by peracetic acid increased the enzymatic digestibility and reduced the amount of peracetic acid needed[17]
Summary
Lignocellulosic biomass is a sustainable, abundant and low-cost resource. Conversion of biomass to biofuels reduces the society’s dependence on petroleum-based fuels and reduces net greenhouse gas emissions[1,2]. Dilute acid pretreatment at high temperatures (>160 °C) removes most of the hemicellulose with minimal degradation of cellulose and lignin[7,8]. Pretreatment with only peracetic acid removed mainly lignin leaving most of the hemicellulose This remaining hemicellulose hindered cellulase access to the cellulose. Removal of both lignin and xylan allows efficient enzymatic hydrolysis of the cellulose[18]. We increased the effectiveness of dilute acid pretreatment by adding peracetic acid This single step procedure simultaneously removes both hemicellulose and lignin from yellow poplar biomass under comparably milder conditions. As compared to dilute acid under same conditions, this process reduces pretreatment time, pretreatment temperature and cellulase enzyme loading while providing high yields of glucose
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