Enhancing Enzyme-Mediated Cellulose Hydrolysis by Incorporating Acid Groups Onto the Lignin During Biomass Pretreatment

The pretreatment of softwood chips and pellets by alkali sulfonation and thermomechanical pulping and its influence on lignin redistribution and the enzyme mediated hydrolysis of the cellulose component

“…Thus, it was probable that the hydrophilization of the lignin, due to the incorporation of sulfonic acid groups, facilitated delignication. 6 Although some carboxylic acids were detected in the untreated biomass, this was likely due to the cleavage of the glucuronic acids present in the sowood hemicellulose. 21 Does the increase in cellulose accessibility increase the effectiveness of enzyme-mediated hydrolysis of pretreated chips and pellets?…”

“…3 Related work has also shown that the incorporation of sulfonic and carboxylic groups onto the lignin signicantly enhanced lignin hydrophilicity, 4,5 mitigating the unproductive binding between enzymes and lignin. 6 More recent work has shown that neutral or alkaline sulfonation followed by mild rening signicantly increased the hydrolysis of pretreated sowood chip. 7 This was likely due to partial delignication and/or modication of lignin structure between the various morphological regions.…”

“…3 Related work has also shown that the incorporation of sulfonic and carboxylic groups onto the lignin significantly enhanced lignin hydrophilicity, 4,5 mitigating the unproductive binding between enzymes and lignin. 6…”

Surfactant-assisted alkaline pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis of Miscanthus sinensis for enhancing sugar recovery with a reduced enzyme loading

“…Bioconversion of lignocellulosic biomass remains limited due to its recalcitrant structure. A key step in bioconversion is pretreatment (Rezania et al, 2020;Wu et al, 2021). An ideal pretreatment technology aims not only to enhance the enzymatic hydrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass by disrupting microstructure, changing components, and improving accessibility, but also to minimize sugar loss and by-products' formation to obtain a high sugar yield in the pretreatment step at a reduced cost.…”