Fractionating recalcitrant lignocellulose at modest reaction conditions

2007/02/22 by Yi‐Heng Percival Zhang, Y.‐H. Percival Zhang, Shi‐You Ding +8 · 26 citations
Chemistry · Engineering · Materials Science · #Acetic acid #Advanced Cellulose Research Studies #Biofuel production and bioconversion #Biorefinery #Catalysis for Biomass Conversion #Cellulase #Cellulose #Chemistry #Chromatography #Enzymatic hydrolysis #Hemicellulose #Hydrolysis #Lignin #Organic chemistry #Pulp and paper industry #Raw material #Sugar

paper · doi:10.1002/bit.21386

openalex publication_date 2007/02/22 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

Effectively releasing the locked polysaccharides from recalcitrant lignocellulose to fermentable sugars is among the greatest technical and economic barriers to the realization of lignocellulose biorefineries because leading lignocellulose pre-treatment technologies suffer from low sugar yields, and/or severe reaction conditions, and/or high cellulase use, narrow substrate applicability, and high capital investment, etc. A new lignocellulose pre-treatment featuring modest reaction conditions (50 degrees C and atmospheric pressure) was demonstrated to fractionate lignocellulose to amorphous cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin, and acetic acid by using a non-volatile cellulose solvent (concentrated phosphoric acid), a highly volatile organic solvent (acetone), and water. The highest sugar yields after enzymatic hydrolysis were attributed to no sugar degradation during the fractionation and the highest enzymatic cellulose digestibility ( approximately 97% in 24 h) during the hydrolysis step at the enzyme loading of 15 filter paper units of cellulase and 60 IU of beta-glucosidase per gram of glucan. Isolation of high-value lignocellulose components (lignin, acetic acid, and hemicellulose) would greatly increase potential revenues of a lignocellulose biorefinery.

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