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On Polydispersity of Plant Biomass Recalcitrance and Its Effects on Pretreatment Optimization for Sugar Production

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Abstract

This paper discusses a property associated with plant biomass recalcitrance to enzyme and microbial deconstructions in sugar production from cellulose and hemicelluloses. The hemicelluloses are more readily hydrolyzed to sugars than is cellulose. As a result, optimization to maximize individual glucose and hemicellulose sugar recovery is not possible. This property is an inherent feature of plant biomass and is named polydispersity of plant biomass recalcitrance (PPBR) in this study. A set of pretreatment experiments using eucalyptus and sulfite pretreatment to overcome recalcitrance of lignocelluloses was conducted. The results were used to predict the conditions for individually maximizing enzymatic glucose and xylose yields. The predicted maximal yields were used to quantitatively illustrate the PPBR concept. The effect of PPBR on pretreatment optimization and strategies for maximal sugar recovery using two-stage pretreatment are discussed.

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Acknowledgments

We especially appreciate Fred Matt (US Forest Service, Forest Products laboratory) for carrying out many careful analyses of carbohydrate in solid substrates. Financial support of this research included the University of Florida IFAS Research Innovation Fund and The US Forest Service Program of Woody Biomass, Bioenergy, and Bioproducts (2009). These programs and the Chinese Scholarship Council provided financial support to Liu for his visiting appointments at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the US Forest Service, Forest Products laboratory.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. USDA Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory, Madison, WI, USA

    J. Y. Zhu, Steve P. Verrill & Victoria L. Herian

  2. State Key Laboratory of Pulp and Paper Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China

    Hao Liu

  3. Department of Biological Systems Engineering, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA

    J. Y. Zhu, Hao Liu & Xuejun Pan

  4. School of Forest Resources and Conservation, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA

    Donald L. Rockwood

Authors
  1. J. Y. Zhu
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  2. Steve P. Verrill
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  3. Hao Liu
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  4. Victoria L. Herian
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  5. Xuejun Pan
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  6. Donald L. Rockwood
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to J. Y. Zhu.

Additional information

This work was conducted on official US government time by Zhu, Verrill, and Herian, while Liu was a visiting student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and USDA Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory. The work is in the public domain in the USA.

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Zhu, J.Y., Verrill, S.P., Liu, H. et al. On Polydispersity of Plant Biomass Recalcitrance and Its Effects on Pretreatment Optimization for Sugar Production. Bioenerg. Res. 4, 201–210 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12155-011-9113-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12155-011-9113-y

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