The Synergic Relationship Between Xylan Removal and Enhanced Cellulose Digestibility for Bioethanol Production: Reactive Area, Crystallinity, and Inhibitation
文摘
Hemicellulosic fraction is thought to act as a barrier, preventing the access of cellulase to cellulose. The impact of xylan removal, by both of the chemical and biological processes, on the cellulose accessibility was comparatively studied. Poplar holocellulose with 24.7 % xylan was taken as the starting material, and the gradual removal of xylan was achieved by successive treatments with increasing NaOH concentration. The data indicated that partial removal of hemicelluloses, not complete, favored the crystal configuration transformation of cellulose and then the lignocellulose/biomass enzymatic digestibility/saccharification. The maximum enzymatic efficiency (94.6 %) was achieved when cellulose II was formed as the NaOH concentration higher than 2.0 M. With the supplement of xylanase, the inhibitory effect from oligosaccharides was probably reduced, but the accumulation of xylose still negatively affected the cellulase cocktails. From the economic perspective, the xylanase loading of 5.0 IU/g xylan was proposed and 1.2-fold increment of cellulose hydrolysis was final obtained. Keywords Xylan removal Structural transition Bioconversion efficiency Simultaneous saccharification and fermentation Bioethanol