BioResources (Jun 2023)

Simultaneous Pretreatment with Ultraviolet Light and Alkaline H2O2 to Promote Enzymatic Hydrolysis of Corn Stover

  • Jianjun Hu,
  • Zhi He,
  • Quanguo Zhang,
  • Jiatao Dang,
  • Shuheng Zhao,
  • Shaoqi Yang,
  • Panbo Yang,
  • Xiaoyu Yan

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 18, no. 3
pp. 4754 – 4770

Abstract

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Pretreatment processes are essential for the preparation of biofuels from lignocellulosic feedstocks. Based on alkaline H2O2 pretreatment, photocatalytic alkaline H2O2 pretreatment (U-AHP) was investigated to examine the effects of reaction time, alkali concentration, and H2O2 concentration on the enzymatic digestion of corn stover. The optimum process conditions were determined by orthogonal tests: 1% NaOH, 2% H2O2, and reaction time of 8 h. Under these conditions, the lignin removal efficiency of UH-AHP was 90.2% and the saccharification yield was 94.7%. Furthermore, FT-IR, XRD, and SEM analyses showed that U-AHP pretreatment caused structural damage to the maize straw and increased the crystallinity of the cellulose, and it was speculated that the U-AHP pretreatment reaction was a complex mechanism, which might be a multiple synergistic reaction. This study shows that U-AHP pretreatment is a simple, green and effective method to promote lignin removal.

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