The co-production of xylose, fermentable glucose and β-O-4 linkage-rich lignin through efficiently dismantling sugarcane bagasse

Yanqing Zheng; Xiheng Kang; Zi You; Yihan Li; Yongheng Huang; Tieguang He; Tianming Su; Arthur J Ragauskas; Zhenglong Li; Qiong Wang; Xueping Song

doi:10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2024.138807

The co-production of xylose, fermentable glucose and β-O-4 linkage-rich lignin through efficiently dismantling sugarcane bagasse

Int J Biol Macromol. 2024 Dec 16:138807. doi: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2024.138807. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Yanqing Zheng¹, Xiheng Kang², Zi You², Yihan Li², Yongheng Huang², Tieguang He³, Tianming Su³, Arthur J Ragauskas⁴, Zhenglong Li⁵, Qiong Wang⁶, Xueping Song⁷

Affiliations

¹ Guangxi Key Laboratory of Clean Pulp & Papermaking and Pollution Control, College of Light Industry and Food Engineering, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, China; Institute of Zhejiang University-Quzhou, 99 Zheda Road, Quzhou, Zhejiang Province 324000, China.
² Guangxi Key Laboratory of Clean Pulp & Papermaking and Pollution Control, College of Light Industry and Food Engineering, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, China.
³ Agricultural Resources and Environmental Research Institute, Guangxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences/Guangxi Key Laboratory of Arable Land Conservation, Nanning 530007, Guangxi, China.
⁴ Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA; Joint Institute for Biological Sciences, Biosciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA; Center for Renewable Carbon, Department of Forestry, Wildlife and Fisheries, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA.
⁵ Institute of Zhejiang University-Quzhou, 99 Zheda Road, Quzhou, Zhejiang Province 324000, China; State Key Laboratory of Biobased Transportation Fuel Technology, College of Biosystems Engineering and Food Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China.
⁶ Institute of Zhejiang University-Quzhou, 99 Zheda Road, Quzhou, Zhejiang Province 324000, China; Key Laboratory of Biomass Chemical Engineering of Ministry of Education, College of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China. Electronic address: [email protected].
⁷ Guangxi Key Laboratory of Clean Pulp & Papermaking and Pollution Control, College of Light Industry and Food Engineering, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, China. Electronic address: [email protected].

PMID: 39694376
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2024.138807

Abstract

As an "upstream" process in biorefinery, biomass dismantling can dismantle the natural stable structure of lignocellulosic biomass and separate its three major components. To increase the value of the entire biomass by fully utilizing the three main components (cellulose, lignin, and hemicellulose), this study proposes a two-step decomposition system combining formic acid (FA) pretreatment and ethylene glycol-NaOH (EGA) dismantling, aiming to effectively convert sugarcane bagasse into xylose, fermentable glucose, and high-value lignin. In the first step, FA pretreatment removed 79.85 % of hemicellulose at 140 °C for 90 min with 3 % FA. Based on the first step, further combination of EGA dismantling can achieve a hemicellulose removal rate of 92.05 % and a lignin removal rate of 95.90 %. In addition, the solid residue was hydrolyzed by enzymes, and the glucose conversion rate was close to 83.29 % when the cellulase dosage was 10 FPU/g. In addition, the lignin recovered by this system retained 83.62 % of the natural β-O-4 structure, which has the potential to catalyze the formation of aromatic monomers. In summary, this gentle two-step system simultaneously improves the efficiency of lignocellulose decomposition and produces different value-added products, demonstrating the potential for industrial-scale production.

Keywords: Combined pretreatment; Enzymatic hydrolysis; Lignin.