Two-Step Pretreatment of Lignocellulosic Biomass for High-Sugar Recovery from the Structural Plant Polymers Cellulose and Hemicellulose

Nikki Sjulander and Timo Kikas
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Nikki Sjulander: Chair of Biosystems Engineering, Institute of Forestry and Engineering, Estonian University of Life Sciences, 51014 Tartu, Estonia
Timo Kikas: Chair of Biosystems Engineering, Institute of Forestry and Engineering, Estonian University of Life Sciences, 51014 Tartu, Estonia

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 23, 1-18

Abstract: Nitrogen explosive decompression pretreatment was tested on barley straw, aspen wood, and pine wood in a two-step pretreatment approach. The two-step approach aims to avoid the uncontrolled degradation of hemicellulose during pretreatment and to recover high sugar yields from hemicellulose and cellulose. Additionally, the pretreated biomass was filtered after each pretreatment step with a fine metal sieve so that fermentation and hydrolysis inhibitors were removed. A total sugar yield of 43 g per 100 g of dry biomass was achieved from barley straw and aspen wood. For pine wood, the total sugar yield was significantly lower, with 12 g per 100 g of dry biomass. Possible reasons for this low sugar yield are the adsorption and deactivation of cellulases on softwood hemicellulose and on repolymerized lignin after pretreatment.

Keywords: bioethanol; biofuels; enzymatic hydrolysis; fermentation; lignocellulosic inhibitors (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: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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