Gaseous ammonia pretreatment lowers the required energy input for fine milling-enhanced enzymatic saccharification of switchgrass

摘要

BackgroundFine milling of dry lignocellulosic biomass, without prior chemical pretreatment, can produce a high percent theoretical yield of sugars during subsequent enzymatic saccharification. However, the high sugar yields, necessary for a commercial biofuels process, are costly, with the milling energy input, necessary to achieve such yields even exceeding the energy content of the biomass. In this study, we show that low moisture gaseous ammonia pretreatment of switchgrass, in advance of the milling step, significantly reduces the milling energy required to give high sugar titers.