The abundant and renewable lignocellulosic biomass provides a great potential for advanced biofuels and chemicals production. However, cost-effectiveness of biofuels production is significantly hindered by the high cost of pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis. Lignin plays an essential role in limiting enzymatic hydrolysis of lignocellulose. After biomass pretreatment, the residual lignin in pretreated substrates can be divided into solvent-extractable lignin and non-extractable lignin. In this study, we will pretreat loblolly pine and sweetgum using an organosolv process. We will distinguish the different roles of solvent-extractable lignin and non-extractable lignin in limiting the enzymatic hydrolysis based on the initial hydrolysis rates and final hydrolysis yields. Non-productive binding between cellulases and these two types of lignin will also be examined. Langmuir adsorption isotherm will be used to determine the enzyme accessibility to the pretreated substrates with and without solvent-extractable lignin.

Effects of solvent-extractable lignin on enzymatic hydrolysis of pretreated biomass

245th National Meeting (2013)

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