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Structural characteristics of corncob and eucalyptus contributed to sugar release during hydrothermal pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis

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Abstract

Explicitly understanding biomass recalcitrance through the characterization of biomass physicochemical properties may help to develop efficient pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis strategies. The lignin of corncob and eucalyptus contain the same main linkage bonds: β–O–4 aryl ether bonds, β–β and β–5 structures, but the lignin of eucalyptus was of the syringyl (S)-guaiacy (G) type, while that of corncob was SG-p-hydroxyphenyl (H) type, corresponding to lignin S/G ratios of 1.6 and 1.1 respectively. Under the optimum microwave–hydrothermal pretreatment condition of 180 °C for 30 min at a 12.5% substrate concentration, the maximum total xylose yield of corncob (64.7%) was lower than that of eucalyptus (79.2%). In contrast, corncob resulted in a greater increase in enzymatic digestibility, from 59.6 to 82.4%, after pretreatments, compared with 16.7 to 74.9% for eucalyptus. There was a positive correlation between the xylose yield and lignin S/G ratio, but the lignin content was negatively correlated with enzymatic digestibility. Furthermore, based on the non-destructive characterization of three-dimensional X-ray microscopy, not only was the increase in the number and size of surface pores beneficial to the accessibility of cellulose to cellulosic enzymes, but the swelling of cell wall could reduce the recalcitrance of sugar release.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported financially by the Pearl River S&T Nova Program of Guangzhou, China (201610010110), Young Top-notch Talent of Guangdong Province, China (2016TQ03N647), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21506216, 51506207, 51561145015), the Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangdong Province, China (2014A010106023), the Key Project of the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (2015A030311022), the Natural Science Foundation for the Research Team of Guangdong Province (2016A030312007) and the Youth Innovation Promotion Association, CAS (No. 2015289).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510640, China

    Qiang Yu, Yinping Zhu, Shixiang Bian, Long Chen, Xinshu Zhuang, Wen Wang & Zhenhong Yuan

  2. CAS Key Laboratory of Renewable Energy, Guangzhou, 510640, China

    Qiang Yu, Yinping Zhu, Shixiang Bian, Long Chen, Xinshu Zhuang, Wen Wang & Zhenhong Yuan

  3. Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of New and Renewable Energy Research and Development, Guangzhou, 510640, China

    Qiang Yu, Yinping Zhu, Shixiang Bian, Long Chen, Xinshu Zhuang, Wen Wang & Zhenhong Yuan

  4. University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China

    Yinping Zhu & Shixiang Bian

  5. University of Chinese Academic of Sciences, Beijing, 100039, China

    Long Chen

  6. Centre for Tropical Crops and Biocommodities, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD, 4000, Australia

    Zhanying Zhang

  7. X-ray CT Laboratory, China National Analytical Center (Guangzhou), Guangzhou, 510070, China

    Jianhua Hu & Jun Chen

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  1. Qiang Yu
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  2. Yinping Zhu
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Correspondence to Wen Wang.

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Yu, Q., Zhu, Y., Bian, S. et al. Structural characteristics of corncob and eucalyptus contributed to sugar release during hydrothermal pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis. Cellulose 24, 4899–4909 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-017-1485-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-017-1485-5

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