Monday, May 4, 2009
12-20

Application of biological pretreatment to improve thermal and chemical processes releasing sugars and bioproducts from wheat straw

Deepak Singh1, Xiaochen Yu2, and Shulin Chen2. (1) Biological Systems Engineering, Washington State University, Bioprocessing and Bioproduct Engineering Laboratory, 111 LJ Smith, Pullman, WA 99164, (2) Biological Systems Engineering, Washington State University, Center for Bioproducts and Bioenergy, 210 LJ Smith, Pullman, WA 99164

This study highlights the biological pretreatment process in combination with mild thermochemical treatment to hydrolyze wheat straw releasing fermentable sugars as well as bioproducts. It uses Phanerochaete chrysosporium to pretreat the straw up to three weeks at 37 oC. In the sugar analysis 0.1 % Tween 80 treated straw showed a better performance, among Tween 80, lactic acid and H2O2, with a total sugar yield of 1.7% of the total dry mass. Decaying of biomass was observed by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). To enhance the hydrolysis, samples were subjected to mild acid (0.2% H2SO4) treatment at 121 oC/ 20 mins. The total sugar of ~ 18 gmL-1 was detected with the first week sample where the control gave ~ 6 gmL-1. However, the enzymatic hydrolysis gave no significant changes in sugar level comparing to control. Therefore, the experiment suggests that the mild acid treatment can be useful method combining biological pretreatment to extract the hydrolysable sugars. Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy showed the distinct absorbance at 1500–1800 cm-1 indicating the deposition of C=O stretching compounds, 1497-1530 cm-1 the aromatic skeletal and 1383-1360 cm-1 for –C-CH3 & C=O. The result was further verified by fast pyrolysis-GC/MS. A clear increasing trend in ratios of venylguaicyl and syringol with biomass incubation time was noted. Overall, this approach of biomass processing is a new way to utilize the biomass both into fermentable sugars and bioproducts. A further study is warranted to discover the effect of organic compounds after straw biodegradation in ethanogenic fermentation process.