Ammonia-salt solvent promotes cellulosic biomass deconstruction under ambient pretreatment conditions to enable rapid soluble sugar production at ultra-low enzyme loadings

Chundawat, Shishir P. S.; Sousa, Leonardo da Costa; Roy, Shyamal; Yang, Zhi; Gupta, Shashwat; Pal, Raktim; Zhao, Chao; Liu, Shih Hsien; Petridis, Loukas; O’Neill, Hugh; Pingali, Sai Venkatesh

doi:10.1039/c9gc03524a

Cited by 34 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 62 publications

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“…It is possible that new or altered cross-links will stabilize the previously plasticized wood structure. An indication of this may be the ammonia-induced conversion of cellulose I to cellulose III [19]. The good plasticization was also demonstrated by densification using a roller press [11,20].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Alteration of Bending Properties of Wood Due to Ammonia Treatment and Additional Densification

Hackenberg

Zauer

Dietrich

et al. 2021

Forests

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This paper deals with comparative studies of bending behavior of untreated and modified European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.), European oak (Quercus spp.) and black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia L.). The modification of the woods included both ammonia treatment and ammonia treatment in combination with mechanical densification. For each ammonia treatment, pure gaseous ammonia was used. The investigations were conducted by means of three-point bending tests. The bulk density increases significantly due to ammonia treatment and, furthermore, due to additional mechanical densification. The modulus of rupture is not affected by ammonia treatment. Additional mechanical densification, however, leads to a strong increase in the strength and stiffness. The deflection behavior changes in such a way that the ammonia treatment leads to an increase in deflection, and the additional mechanical densification further reinforces this trend.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Alteration of Bending Properties of Wood Due to Ammonia Treatment and Additional Densification

Hackenberg

Zauer

Dietrich

et al. 2021

Forests

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“…A few additional methods have looked at use of anhydrous ammonia (low-moisture anhydrous ammonia (LMAA), and low-liquid ammonia pretreatment 25 (LAA). In the last few years, two new advanced organosolv-type pretreatment technologies utilizing liquid anhydrous ammonia 26,27 and ammonia-salt based solutions 28 at high liquid to solid loadings were recently developed that enable selective lignin fractionation and high efficiency enzymatic hydrolysis of pretreated cellulosic biomass at ultra-low enzyme loadings. A recent review article has highlighted the similarities and distinct differences between various forms of ammonia-based pretreatments 29 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ammonia Fiber Expansion (AFEX) Pretreatment of Lignocellulosic Biomass

Chundawat

Pal

Zhao

et al. 2020

JoVE

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Lignocellulosic materials are plant-derived feedstocks, such as crop residues (e.g., corn stover, rice straw, and sugar cane bagasse) and purpose-grown energy crops (e.g., miscanthus, and switchgrass) that are available in large quantities to produce biofuels, biochemicals, and animal feed. Plant polysaccharides (i.e., cellulose, hemicellulose, and pectin) embedded within cell walls are highly recalcitrant towards conversion into useful products. Ammonia fiber expansion (AFEX) is a thermochemical pretreatment that increases accessibility of polysaccharides to enzymes for hydrolysis into fermentable sugars. These released sugars can be converted into fuels and chemicals in a biorefinery. Here, we describe a laboratory-scale batch AFEX process to produce pretreated biomass on the gram-scale without any ammonia recycling. The laboratory-scale process can be used to identify optimal pretreatment conditions (e.g., ammonia loading, water loading, biomass loading, temperature, pressure, residence time, etc.) and generates sufficient quantities of pretreated samples for detailed physicochemical characterization and enzymatic/microbial analysis. The yield of fermentable sugars from enzymatic hydrolysis of corn stover pretreated using the laboratory-scale AFEX process is comparable to pilot-scale AFEX process under similar pretreatment conditions. This paper is intended to provide a detailed standard operating procedure for the safe and consistent operation of laboratory-scale reactors for performing AFEX pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass. Video LinkThe video component of this article can be found at https://www.jove.com/video/57488/ 19 . This process underwent several name changes over the years, starting as ammonia freeze explosion, and then ammonia fiber explosion, and finally, ammonia fiber expansion, or simply AFEX. Around this same time (mid-late 1980s), DuPont (now Dow-DuPont) also explored using supercritical and near-critical anhydrous ammonia based pretreatment processes to increase digestibility of biomass 20,21,22 . In recent decades, there has been

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“…Since the cladding of the microfibril is altered due to the effect of the ionic liquid, microfibrils could coalesce with other microfibrils to form larger fibrillar structures. Such a process with increasing crystalline cellulose has been observed under acidic conditions (Silveira et al 2016;Yao et al 2018a, b), after pulping (Fahlén and Salmén 2005) and for the transformation to other cellulose polymorphs (Chundawat et al 2020).…”

Section: Reduced Model Resultsmentioning

confidence: 86%

In operando monitoring of wood transformation during pretreatment with ionic liquids

et al. 2020

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The conversion of lignocellulosic biomass or wood into chemicals still poses a challenge due to the recalcitrance of this composite-like material consisting of lignin, hemicellulose and cellulose. A very high accessibility of cellulose is reported by a pretreatment with ionic liquids that enables high conversion rates by enzymatic hydrolysis. However, the underlying mechanisms have not yet been monitored in operando nor are they fully understood. We monitored the transformation of wood in ionic liquids using small-angle neutron scattering to observe changes in the material in operando and to elucidate the intrinsic effects. The data analysis shows three different stages that is (1) impregnation, (2) the formation of voids and (3) increasing structure size within cellulose fibrils. This consecutive mechanism coincides with macroscopic disintegration of the tissue. The analysis further reveals that the reduction of order in longitudinal direction along the fiber axis is a prerequisite for disintegration of cells along the radial direction. This understanding supports further research and development of pretreatment processes starting from lignocellulosic raw material.

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Ammonia-salt solvent promotes cellulosic biomass deconstruction under ambient pretreatment conditions to enable rapid soluble sugar production at ultra-low enzyme loadings

Abstract: Lignocellulose dissolution and fractionation into highly amorphous cellulose (and lignin) using ammonia-salt solvents under ambient conditions facilitates efficient biorefining.

Cited by 34 publications

References 62 publications

Alteration of Bending Properties of Wood Due to Ammonia Treatment and Additional Densification

Alteration of Bending Properties of Wood Due to Ammonia Treatment and Additional Densification

Ammonia Fiber Expansion (AFEX) Pretreatment of Lignocellulosic Biomass

In operando monitoring of wood transformation during pretreatment with ionic liquids

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