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Biomass deconstruction to sugars
Author(s) -
Blanch Harvey W.,
Simmons Blake A.,
KleinMarcuschamer Daniel
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
biotechnology journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.144
H-Index - 84
eISSN - 1860-7314
pISSN - 1860-6768
DOI - 10.1002/biot.201000180
Subject(s) - depolymerization , biomass (ecology) , lignocellulosic biomass , chemistry , hemicellulose , biofuel , pulp and paper industry , catalysis , cellulose , lignin , ionic liquid , organic chemistry , bioenergy , glycosidic bond , chemical industry , microbiology and biotechnology , enzyme , agronomy , biology , engineering
The production of biofuels from lignocellulosic biomass relies on the depolymerization of its polysaccharide content into fermentable sugars. Accomplishing this requires pretreatment of the biomass to reduce its size, and chemical or physical alteration of the biomass polymers to enhance the susceptibility of their glycosidic linkages to enzymatic or acid catalyzed cleavage. Well‐studied approaches include dilute and concentrated acid pretreatment and catalysis, and the dissolution of biomass in organic solvents. These and recently developed approaches, such as solubilization in ionic liquids, are reviewed in terms of the chemical and physical changes occurring in biomass pretreatment. As pretreatment represents one of the major costs in converting biomass to fuels, the factors that contribute to pretreatments costs, and their impact on overall process economics, are described.