Steam Explosion Pretreatment of Beechwood. Part 2: Quantification of Cellulase Inhibitors and Their Effect on Avicel Hydrolysis

Simone Brethauer, Andrzej Antczak, Robert Balan, Tomasz Zielenkiewicz and Michael H. Studer
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Simone Brethauer: Forest and Food Sciences HAFL, School of Agricultural, Bern University of Applied Sciences, Laenggasse 85, 3052 Zollikofen, Switzerland
Andrzej Antczak: Institute of Wood Sciences and Furniture, Warsaw University of Life Sciences-SGGW, 159 Nowoursynowska St., 02-776 Warsaw, Poland
Robert Balan: Forest and Food Sciences HAFL, School of Agricultural, Bern University of Applied Sciences, Laenggasse 85, 3052 Zollikofen, Switzerland
Tomasz Zielenkiewicz: Institute of Wood Sciences and Furniture, Warsaw University of Life Sciences-SGGW, 159 Nowoursynowska St., 02-776 Warsaw, Poland
Michael H. Studer: Forest and Food Sciences HAFL, School of Agricultural, Bern University of Applied Sciences, Laenggasse 85, 3052 Zollikofen, Switzerland

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 14, 1-17

Abstract: Biomass pretreatment is a mandatory step for the biochemical conversion of lignocellulose to chemicals. During pretreatment, soluble compounds are released into the prehydrolyzate that inhibit the enzymatic hydrolysis step. In this work, we investigated how the reaction conditions in steam explosion pretreatment of beechwood (severity: 3.0–5.25; temperature: 160–230 °C) influence the resulting amounts of different inhibitors. Furthermore, we quantified the extent of enzyme inhibition during enzymatic hydrolysis of Avicel in the presence of the prehydrolyzates. The amounts of phenolics, HMF, acetic acid and formic acid increased with increasing pretreatment severities and maximal quantities of 21.6, 8.3, 43.7 and 10.9 mg/g beechwood , respectively, were measured at the highest severity. In contrast, the furfural concentration peaked at a temperature of 200 °C and a severity of 4.75. The presence of the prehydrolyzates in enzymatic hydrolysis of Avicel lowered the glucose yields by 5–26%. Mainly, the amount of phenolics and xylose and xylooligomers contributed to the reduced yield. As the maximal amounts of these two inhibitors can be found at different conditions, a wide range of pretreatment severities led to severely inhibiting prehydrolyzates. This study may provide guidelines when choosing optimal pretreatment conditions for whole slurry enzymatic hydrolysis.

Keywords: steam explosion pretreatment; enzymatic hydrolysis; inhibition; HMF; phenolics; furfural (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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