Next-generation ammonia pretreatment enhances cellulosic biofuel production

A new liquid ammonia pretreatment methodology called Extractive Ammonia (EA) was developed to simultaneously convert native crystalline cellulose I (CI) to a highly digestible cellulose III I (CIII) allomorph and selectively extract up to 45% of the lignin from lignocellulosic biomass with near-quan...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Energy & environmental science 2016-04, Vol.9 (4), p.1215-1223
Main Authors: da Costa Sousa, Leonardo, Jin, Mingjie, Chundawat, Shishir P. S, Bokade, Vijay, Tang, Xiaoyu, Azarpira, Ali, Lu, Fachuang, Avci, Utku, Humpula, James, Uppugundla, Nirmal, Gunawan, Christa, Pattathil, Sivakumar, Cheh, Albert M, Kothari, Ninad, Kumar, Rajeev, Ralph, John, Hahn, Michael G, Wyman, Charles E, Singh, Seema, Simmons, Blake A, Dale, Bruce E, Balan, Venkatesh
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Ammonia
Biomass
Enzymes
Ethanol
Ethyl alcohol
Fuels
Glucan
Pretreatment
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Summary:A new liquid ammonia pretreatment methodology called Extractive Ammonia (EA) was developed to simultaneously convert native crystalline cellulose I (CI) to a highly digestible cellulose III I (CIII) allomorph and selectively extract up to 45% of the lignin from lignocellulosic biomass with near-quantitative retention of all polysaccharides. EA pretreated corn stover yielded a higher fermentable sugar yield compared to the older Ammonia Fiber Expansion (AFEX) process while using 60% lower enzyme loading. The EA process preserves extracted lignin functionalities, offering the potential to co-produce lignin-derived fuels and chemicals in the biorefinery. The single-stage EA fractionation process achieves high biofuel yields (18.2 kg ethanol per 100 kg untreated corn stover, dry weight basis), comparable to those achieved using ionic liquid pretreatments. The EA process achieves these ethanol yields at industrially-relevant conditions using low enzyme loading (7.5 mg protein per g glucan) and high solids loading (8% glucan, w/v). Extractive ammonia pretreatment converts crystalline cellulose I to a highly digestible cellulose III I and selectively extracts up to 45% of the lignin from lignocellulosic biomass with near-quantitative retention of all polysaccharides.
ISSN:1754-5692
1754-5706
DOI:10.1039/c5ee03051j