Biphasic 2-methyltetrahydrofuran/oxalic acid/water pretreatment to enhance cellulose enzymatic hydrolysis and lignin valorization.

Shu-Xian Li, Ming-Fei Li, Jing Bian, Shao-Ni Sun, Feng Peng, Zhi-Min Xue

Bioresource technology 2017 Nov

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A biphasic pretreatment was adopted to disturb the recalcitrant structure of bamboo for further enzymatic hydrolysis and to obtain easily valorized lignin by-product. The biphasic system consisted of biomass-derived chemicals-2-methyltetrahydrofuran and oxalic acid as well as water, and the reactions were conducted at 120-180°C for 20min. The treatment resulted in notable removal of hemicelluloses and lignin. After the pretreatment, the cellulose conversion rate during enzymatic hydrolysis was enhanced by 6.7-fold as compared to the unpretreated raw material. Comprehensive analysis of the lignin product indicated that it exhibited representative structure (such as β-O-4, β-β linkages) as compared to native lignin, contained a very low amount of contaminated sugars (0.67-2.39%), and had a relatively medium molecular weight (Mw 2240-3730g/mol) and good solubility in many organic solvents. This indicated that the lignin showed great potential application in conversion into materials and liquid fuels. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Citation

Shu-Xian Li, Ming-Fei Li, Jing Bian, Shao-Ni Sun, Feng Peng, Zhi-Min Xue. Biphasic 2-methyltetrahydrofuran/oxalic acid/water pretreatment to enhance cellulose enzymatic hydrolysis and lignin valorization. Bioresource technology. 2017 Nov;243:1105-1111