Tuesday, April 20, 2010
LL Conference Facility (Hilton Clearwater Beach)
A significant number of methods for pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass before enzymatic hydrolysis have been described in literature. Selection of pretreatment methods may be based on a number of criteria such as capital costs, operation costs, integration with other processes and not at least the type of biomass to be pretreated. Choice of pretreatment method has significant impact on the susceptibility of the lignocellulosic material towards enzymatic decomposition and it is generally recognised that optimum conditions/pretreatment severity differs among various types of biomass. However, less is known about how robust the pretreatment methods are in handle variations within the same type of biomass, e.g. wheat straw, and will different pretreatment methods respond similarly to variations within the feedstock?
In this study, the variability within one type of feedstock with respect to the susceptibility towards enzymatic hydrolysis after pretreatment is investigated. Based on preliminary studies, a subset of four wheat straw samples (two varieties both grown at two different locations inDenmark ) has been selected and pretreated with three different pretreatment methods: SO2-catalysed steam pretreatment, organosolv pretreatment and hydrothermal pretreatment. The robustness of the pretreatment methods towards variation in the feedstock is investigated and it is observed if different methods respond differently. In addition, substrate characteristics of the four wheat straw samples are compared and related to the observed variation among varieties and pretreatments.
In this study, the variability within one type of feedstock with respect to the susceptibility towards enzymatic hydrolysis after pretreatment is investigated. Based on preliminary studies, a subset of four wheat straw samples (two varieties both grown at two different locations in