Autohydrolysis Pretreatment and Delignification of Silver Fir Wood to Obtain Fermentable Sugars for Bioethanol Production

Abstract

Fir wood biomass, non-pretreated and pretreated by autohydrolysis under selective conditions followed by chlorite delignification, was used as a substrate for enzymatic hydrolysis. The influence of solid loading on the enzymatic hydrolysis yield was studied. Compared with non-pretreated wood, autohydrolysis pretreatments at all temperatures tested enhanced enzymatic hydrolysis yields. A total of 33.0 g sugars can be generated from 100 g silver fir wood. The results show that elimination of hemicellulose by autohydrolysis pretreatment and lignin by delignification, before enzymatic hydrolysis, enhances enzymatic overall process yield.

Keywords:

• autohydrolysis
• cellulose
• delignification
• sugars
• wood

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the NUCLEU Program No. PN 09 27 03 02/2009/OPTRONICA III (ANCS Program) and by a grant of the Romanian National Agency for Scientific Research, Project Number PN-II-PT-PCCA-2011-3.2-0452: “Hydrogen production from hydroxylic compounds resulted as biomass processing wastes” –HYCAT.”