Flowthrough pretreatment with very dilute acid provides insights into high lignin contribution to biomass recalcitrance

摘要

BackgroundFlowthrough pretreatment is capable of removing much higher quantities of hemicellulose and lignin from lignocellulosic biomass than batch pretreatment performed at otherwise similar conditions. Comparison of these two pretreatment configurations for sugar yields and lignin removal can provide insights into lignocellulosic biomass deconstruction. Therefore, we applied liquid hot water (LHW) and extremely dilute acid (EDA, 0.05%) flowthrough and batch pretreatments of poplar at two temperatures and the same pretreatment severity for the solids. Composition of solids, sugar mass distribution with pretreatment, sugar yields, and lignin removal from pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis were measured.