Effect of steam explosion pre-treatment on enzymatic saccharification of lignocellulosic material

Taking into account the sharp rise in prices and the depletion of resources of petroleum, an alternative to fossil resources is needed. A probable alternative is the use of lignocellulosic raw material to produce biofuels. The “first generation” biofuels are highly controversial because of the use of food plant material. The aim of the “second generation” biofuels is to take lignocellulosic non-food plant material as raw material.
Lignocellulosic biomass has a very complex structure made of linkages between lignins, cellulose and hemicelluloses. The saccharification of these lignocellulosic materials requires the fractionation of its constituents. Research has lead to many lignocellulosic biomass fractionation pre-treatments. This study particularly focuses on the steam explosion pretreatment followed by an enzymatic saccharification. Steam explosion is a thermomechanical process which allows the breakdown of the lignocellulosic material structure by the combined action of steam heating, hydrolysis induced by the organic acids formed during the process and shear stress resulting from the pressure rough drop. This treatment leads to modification of the physical parameters such as water retention capacity, cristallinity rate of the cellulosic fraction, hydrolysis of the hemicellulosic fraction and rearrangement in the lignin structure.
Such modifications are supposed to make cellulose enzymatic hydrolysis from complex lignocellulosic material easier. In order to verify this hypothesis, different lignocellulosic raw materials have been pre-treated by steam explosion. These materials were sugar beet pulp, corn straw and miscanthus. In order to check the effect of steam explosion pre-treatment on cellulose, a microcrystalline cellulose was also treated.
Steam explosion was performed at a vapor pressure of 18 bars and with a retention time of 2 minutes. The steam exploded lignocellulosic materials and the untreated one were submitted to a hydrolysis with a mixture of enzymes composed of cellulases and cellobiase activities during 24 hours. The quantification of glucose in the hydrolysates at different times was performed by HPAEC-PAD. Rate of cellulose converted into glucose were better with steam exploded raw material showing that steam explosion allows improvement of lignocellulosic material for enzymatic saccharification.