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Optimization of Ammonia Fiber Expansion (AFEX) Pretreatment and Enzymatic Hydrolysis of Miscanthus x giganteus to Fermentable Sugars
Author(s) -
Murnen Hannah K.,
Balan Venkatesh,
Chundawat Shishir P. S.,
Bals Bryan,
Sousa Leonardo da Costa,
Dale Bruce E.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
biotechnology progress
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.572
H-Index - 129
eISSN - 1520-6033
pISSN - 8756-7938
DOI - 10.1021/bp070098m
Subject(s) - miscanthus , chemistry , enzymatic hydrolysis , hydrolysis , enzyme , ammonia , biochemistry , beta glucosidase , food science , cellulase , biofuel , bioenergy , microbiology and biotechnology , biology
Miscanthus x giganteus is a tall perennial grass whose suitability as an energy crop is presently being appraised. There is very little information on the effect of pretreatment and enzymatic saccharification of Miscanthus to produce fermentable sugars. This paper reports sugar yields during enzymatic hydrolysis from ammonia fiber expansion (AFEX) pretreated Miscanthus . Pretreatment conditions including temperature, moisture, ammonia loading, residence time, and enzyme loadings are varied to maximize hydrolysis yields. In addition, further treatments such as soaking the biomass prior to AFEX as well as washing the pretreated material were also attempted to improve sugar yields. The optimal AFEX conditions determined were 160 °C, 2:1 (w/w) ammonia to biomass loading, 233% moisture (dry weight basis), and 5 min reaction time for water‐soaked Miscanthus . Approximately 96% glucan and 81% xylan conversions were achieved after 168 h enzymatic hydrolysis at 1% glucan loading using 15 FPU/(g of glucan) of cellulase and 64 p‐NPGU/(g of glucan) of β‐glucosidase along with xylanase and tween‐80 supplementation. A mass balance for the AFEX pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis process is presented.