Thread Rolling: An Efficient Mechanical Pretreatment for Corn Stover Saccharification

Abstract

Sugar cane bagasse and corn stalks are rich in lignocellulose, which can be degraded into monosaccharides through enzymatic hydrolysis. Appropriate pretreatment methods can effectively improve the efficiency of lignocellulose enzymatic hydrolysis. To enhance the efficiency of enzymatic hydrolysis, thread rolling pretreatment as a physical pretreatment was applied in this study. The influence of raw material meshes size after pretreatment was also taken as the research target. Specific surface area analysis, Scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-rays diffraction (XRD), and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) were used for characterizations. The results showed that, the total monosaccharide recovery rates of the raw materials, 20–40 mesh, 40–60 mesh, and 60–80 mesh enzymolysis substrates were 17.6%, 34.58%, 37.94%, and 50.69%, respectively. The sample after pretreatment showed a better recovery of monosaccharide than that of the raw material. Moreover, the enzymolysis substrates with a larger mesh exhibited a higher recovery of monosaccharide than that of the enzymolysis substrates with smaller meshes. This indicated that thread rolling pretreatment can effectively improve the efficiency of enzymatic hydrolysis.

Recent Advances in the Technologies and Catalytic Processes of Ethanol Production

“…The complex and rigid structure of lignocellulosic materials is made by noncovalent interactions with covalent cross-linkages [90]. The conversion of lignocellulosic materials into ethanol involves pretreatment, enzymatic hydrolysis, fermentation, and distillation [92][93][94][95]. During the pretreatment process, various cutting-edge technologies are utilized to open the structure of lignocellulosic materials by physical, chemical, physicochemical, and biological techniques and separate complex interlinked structures among hemicellulose and lignin from the matrix [87,[96][97][98].…”

Mechanical pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass toward enzymatic/fermentative valorization

“…It was found that this process can increase enzymatic activity. Bigger particles had lower efficiency regarding saccharification (17.5% sugar release for 20-40 mesh) than smaller particles (50.69% sugar release for 60-80 mesh) ( Deng and Li, 2021 ). However, enzymatic hydrolysis is not only used for saccharification or glucose release.…”