Monday, May 4, 2009
5-100
Effect of high-temperature enzymatic pretreatment on saccharification of acid-pretreated corn stover
Hanshu Ding and Elena Vlasenko. Protein Chemistry, Novozymes, 1445 Drew Ave., Davis, CA 95616
Lignocellulosic biomass is an abundant renewable resource that can be used for production of fuels and chemicals. The biological conversion of lignocellulose to ethanol involves a number of steps, including pretreatment to make the cellulose fraction more accessible to cellulases, enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose to glucose, and fermentation of glucose and other sugars to ethanol. In this study, we evaluated the possibility of reducing the overall enzyme loading by introducing a high-temperature enzymatic pretreatment step immediately before the enzymatic hydrolysis step. High-temperature enzymatic pretreatment of dilute-acid pretreated corn stover (PCS) was performed using different thermostable endoglucanases and endoxylanases at different temperatures and protein loadings. The enzymatic pretreatment was followed by enzymatic saccharification of PCS by cellulolytic enzymes at 50°C. The effect of the enzymatic pretreatment on the overall enzyme dose needed to achieve the certain degree of cellulose conversion will be discussed.