Deacetylation and dilute acid pretreatment of corn stover, switchgrass, and stover-switchgrass mix

The goal of pretreatment is to physically and/or chemically modify lignocellulosic biomass to enhance the ability of enzymes to hydrolyze the remaining plant cell wall polysaccharides to produce sugars for subsequent conversion to fuels and chemicals.  Much work has been published on the performance of single feedstocks in pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis.  Blending different feedstock species can reduce overall cost, allow access to otherwise stranded feedstocks and improve sustainability of biomass resources.  This poses a challenge because optimal pretreatment conditions may vary even within a single feedstock species due to differences in biomass recalcitrance resulting from factors such as varied geographic growing locations, irrigated vs. non-irrigated, fertilized vs. non-fertilized, and harvesting technique.  Greater chemical and structural variability is observed when comparing different lignocellulosic plant species, which may exacerbate the biomass recalcitrance in a feedstock blend.  In this work the xylose and glucose yields resulting from deacetylation, high-solids acid pretreatment in a steam explosion reactor, and high-solids enzymatic hydrolysis of a corn stover-switchgrass blend is compared to that of the individual feedstocks.