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BackgroundExplaining the reduction of hydrolysis rate during lignocellulose hydrolysis is a challenge for the understanding and modelling of the process. This article reports the changes of cellulose and lignin surface areas, porosity and the residual cellulase activity during the hydrolysis of autohydrolysed wheat straw and delignified wheat straw. The potential rate-constraining mechanisms are assessed with a simplified kinetic model and compared to the observed effects, residual cellulase activity and product inhibition.ResultsThe reaction rate depended exclusively on the degree of hydrolysis, while enzyme denaturation or time-dependent changes in substrate hydrolysability were absent. Cellulose surface area decreased linearly with hydrolysis, in correlation with total cellulose content. Lignin surface area was initially decreased by the dissolution of phenolics and then remained unchanged. The dissolved phenolics did not contribute to product inhibition. The porosity of delignified straw was decreased during hydrolysis, but no difference in porosity was detected during the hydrolysis of autohydrolysed straw.ConclusionsAlthough a hydrolysis-dependent increase of non-productive binding capacity of lignin was not apparent, the dependence of hydrolysis maxima on the enzyme dosage was best explained by partial irreversible product inhibition. Cellulose surface area correlated with the total cellulose content, which is thus an appropriate approximation of the substrate concentration for kinetic modelling. Kinetic models of cellulose hydrolysis should be simplified enough to include reversible and irreversible product inhibition and reduction of hydrolysability, as well as their possible non-linear relations to hydrolysis degree, without overparameterization of particular factors.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13068-016-0431-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorised users.

Optimal enzyme mixtures of six Trichoderma reesei enzymes and five thermostable enzyme components were developed for the hydrolysis of hydrothermally pretreated wheat straw, alkaline oxidised sugar cane bagasse and steam-exploded bagasse by statistically designed experiments. Preliminary studies to narrow down the optimization parameters showed that a cellobiohydrolase/endoglucanase (CBH/EG) ratio of 4:1 or higher of thermostable enzymes gave the maximal CBH-EG synergy in the hydrolysis of hydrothermally pretreated wheat straw. The composition of optimal enzyme mixtures depended clearly on the substrate and on the enzyme system studied. The optimal enzyme mixture of thermostable enzymes was dominated by Cel7A and required a relatively high amount of xylanase, whereas with T. reesei enzymes, the high proportion of Cel7B appeared to provide the required xylanase activity. The main effect of the pretreatment method was that the required proportion of xylanase was higher and the proportion of Cel7A lower in the optimized mixture for hydrolysis of alkaline oxidised bagasse than steam-exploded bagasse. In prolonged hydrolyses, less Cel7A was generally required in the optimal mixture. Five-component mixtures of thermostable enzymes showed comparable hydrolysis yields to those of commercial enzyme mixtures.