INVESTIGATION OF FATE OF POPLAR LIGNIN DURING AUTO HYDROLYSIS PRETREATMENT TO UNDERSTAND THE BIOMASS RECALCITRANCE

摘要

Conversion of lignocellelusic biomass to bioethanol in a cost-effective way is challenging due to natural recalcitrance in biomass. The well documented method for reducing the recalcitrance is pretreatment, which enhances the enzymatic hydrolysis by altering plant cell wall structure by decreasing the degree of polymerization of cellulose, removing and/ disrupting lignin and hemicelluloses. Auto hydrolysis is considered to be an environmentally friendly, low-cost water only pretreatment technique in biomass processing. In order to understand the exact fate of lignin during this process we have carried out an auto hydrolysis of poplar enzymatic lignin at different temperature. Subsequently we analyzed the structural changes by 2D ~(13)C-~1H HSQC, ~(31)P NMR and Gel permeable chromatography.