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Water retention value predicts biomass recalcitrance for pretreated biomass : biomass water interactions vary based on pretreatment chemistry and reflect composition

Thomsen, Sune Tjalfe ; Weiss, Noah D. LU ; Zhang, Heng and Felby, Claus (2021) In Cellulose 28(1). p.317-330
Abstract

Processing of lignocellulosic biomass is complex due to the heterogeneity of the substrate, but also due to lengthy unit operations, which complicates process control including for enzymatic saccharification. Methods for predicting enzymatic saccharification yield based on the properties of the pretreated biomass would be advantageous to process optimization and control. Biomass-water interaction measurements provide a method for quickly predicting biomass recalcitrance. Correlating water retention value (WRV) and enzymatic saccharification yield (ESY) on pretreated biomass has shown promise, especially when assessing only single biomass types pretreated with one specific chemistry. However, with comparisons between different types of... (More)

Processing of lignocellulosic biomass is complex due to the heterogeneity of the substrate, but also due to lengthy unit operations, which complicates process control including for enzymatic saccharification. Methods for predicting enzymatic saccharification yield based on the properties of the pretreated biomass would be advantageous to process optimization and control. Biomass-water interaction measurements provide a method for quickly predicting biomass recalcitrance. Correlating water retention value (WRV) and enzymatic saccharification yield (ESY) on pretreated biomass has shown promise, especially when assessing only single biomass types pretreated with one specific chemistry. However, with comparisons between different types of biomasses, predictive powers have been low. We investigate the effect of pretreatment chemistry on the predictive power of WRV, when keeping the biomass static. Wheat straw was pretreated with dilute acid, hydrothermal, or alkaline chemistries at five different temperatures. Furthermore, low field nuclear magnetic resonance was used to measure water constraint in the pretreated materials, to better understand how biomass-water interactions change with pretreatment severity and chemistry. We show that the correlation of WRV and ESY is highly pretreatment dependent, while WRV strongly predicts ESY within each pretreatment chemistry. While ESY and WRV correlated under all chemistries, the direction of the correlations were divergent, suggesting a more complex interplay between recalcitrance and biomass-water interactions. Using T2 relaxation profiles, reductions in hemicellulose composition was related to the decrease in size of the most constrained water population present in the pretreated biomasses for all chemistries, suggesting a new identification of this population of constrained water.

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author
; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Biomass recalcitrance, Enzymatic hydrolysis, LF-NMR, Lignocellulose, Pretreatment, Water retention value
in
Cellulose
volume
28
issue
1
pages
317 - 330
publisher
Springer
external identifiers
  • scopus:85094901329
ISSN
0969-0239
DOI
10.1007/s10570-020-03507-w
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
d4166d32-a10f-48bc-9470-c691992494a1
date added to LUP
2020-11-23 08:13:49
date last changed
2023-12-19 07:36:12
@article{d4166d32-a10f-48bc-9470-c691992494a1,
  abstract     = {{<p>Processing of lignocellulosic biomass is complex due to the heterogeneity of the substrate, but also due to lengthy unit operations, which complicates process control including for enzymatic saccharification. Methods for predicting enzymatic saccharification yield based on the properties of the pretreated biomass would be advantageous to process optimization and control. Biomass-water interaction measurements provide a method for quickly predicting biomass recalcitrance. Correlating water retention value (WRV) and enzymatic saccharification yield (ESY) on pretreated biomass has shown promise, especially when assessing only single biomass types pretreated with one specific chemistry. However, with comparisons between different types of biomasses, predictive powers have been low. We investigate the effect of pretreatment chemistry on the predictive power of WRV, when keeping the biomass static. Wheat straw was pretreated with dilute acid, hydrothermal, or alkaline chemistries at five different temperatures. Furthermore, low field nuclear magnetic resonance was used to measure water constraint in the pretreated materials, to better understand how biomass-water interactions change with pretreatment severity and chemistry. We show that the correlation of WRV and ESY is highly pretreatment dependent, while WRV strongly predicts ESY within each pretreatment chemistry. While ESY and WRV correlated under all chemistries, the direction of the correlations were divergent, suggesting a more complex interplay between recalcitrance and biomass-water interactions. Using T<sub>2</sub> relaxation profiles, reductions in hemicellulose composition was related to the decrease in size of the most constrained water population present in the pretreated biomasses for all chemistries, suggesting a new identification of this population of constrained water.</p>}},
  author       = {{Thomsen, Sune Tjalfe and Weiss, Noah D. and Zhang, Heng and Felby, Claus}},
  issn         = {{0969-0239}},
  keywords     = {{Biomass recalcitrance; Enzymatic hydrolysis; LF-NMR; Lignocellulose; Pretreatment; Water retention value}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{1}},
  pages        = {{317--330}},
  publisher    = {{Springer}},
  series       = {{Cellulose}},
  title        = {{Water retention value predicts biomass recalcitrance for pretreated biomass : biomass water interactions vary based on pretreatment chemistry and reflect composition}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10570-020-03507-w}},
  doi          = {{10.1007/s10570-020-03507-w}},
  volume       = {{28}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}