Sodium hydroxide pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis of coastal Bermuda grass

Authors

Ziyu Wang, North Carolina State University
Deepak R. Keshwani, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Arthur P. Redding, North Carolina State University
Jay J. Cheng, North Carolina State UniversityFollow

Date of this Version

2010

Comments

Published in Bioresource Technology (2010); doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2009.12.097 Copyright © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. Used by permission. http://www.elsevier.com/locate/biortech

Abstract

Coastal Bermuda grass was pretreated with NaOH at concentrations from 0.5% to 3% (w/v) for a residence time from 15 to 90 min at 121 °C. The pretreatments were evaluated based on total lignin removal and production of total reducing sugars, glucose and xylose from enzymatic hydrolysis of the pretreated biomass. Up to 86% lignin removal was observed. The optimal NaOH pretreatment conditions at 121 °C for total reducing sugars production as well as glucose and xylose yields are 15 min and 0.75% NaOH. Under these optimal pretreatment conditions, total reducing sugars yield was about 71% of the theoretical maximum, and the overall conversion efficiencies for glucan and xylan were 90.43% and 65.11%, respectively.