Cellulosic biomass pretreatment and sugar yields as a function of biomass particle size

Michael J Dougherty; Huu M Tran; Vitalie Stavila; Bernhard Knierim; Anthe George; Manfred Auer; Paul D Adams; Masood Z Hadi

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0100836

Cellulosic biomass pretreatment and sugar yields as a function of biomass particle size

PLoS One. 2014 Jun 27;9(6):e100836. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0100836. eCollection 2014.

Authors

Michael J Dougherty¹, Huu M Tran¹, Vitalie Stavila², Bernhard Knierim³, Anthe George¹, Manfred Auer³, Paul D Adams⁴, Masood Z Hadi¹

Affiliations

¹ The Joint BioEnergy Institute, Emeryville, California, United States of America; Sandia National Laboratories, Livermore, California, United States of America.
² Sandia National Laboratories, Livermore, California, United States of America.
³ The Joint BioEnergy Institute, Emeryville, California, United States of America; Physical Biosciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, United States of America.
⁴ The Joint BioEnergy Institute, Emeryville, California, United States of America; Physical Biosciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, United States of America; Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Berkeley, California, United States of America.

Abstract

Three lignocellulosic pretreatment techniques (ammonia fiber expansion, dilute acid and ionic liquid) are compared with respect to saccharification efficiency, particle size and biomass composition. In particular, the effects of switchgrass particle size (32-200) on each pretreatment regime are examined. Physical properties of untreated and pretreated samples are characterized using crystallinity, surface accessibility measurements and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) imaging. At every particle size tested, ionic liquid (IL) pretreatment results in greater cell wall disruption, reduced crystallinity, increased accessible surface area, and higher saccharification efficiencies compared with dilute acid and AFEX pretreatments. The advantages of using IL pretreatment are greatest at larger particle sizes (>75 µm).

Publication types

Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

Acids / pharmacology
Biomass*
Carbohydrates / biosynthesis*
Cell Wall / drug effects*
Cell Wall / ultrastructure
Crystallization
Ionic Liquids / pharmacology*
Microscopy, Electron, Scanning
Nitrogen / chemistry
Nitrogen / metabolism
Particle Size
Poaceae / chemistry
Poaceae / metabolism

Substances

Acids
Carbohydrates
Ionic Liquids
Nitrogen

Grants and funding

This work was part of the DOE Joint BioEnergy Institute (http://www.jbei.org) supported by the U. S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research, through contract DE-AC02-05CH11231 between Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the U. S. Department of Energy. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.