Cosolvent pretreatment in cellulosic biofuel production: Effect of tetrahydrofuran-water on lignin structure and dynamics
Abstract
The deconstruction of cellulose is an essential step in the production of ethanol from lignocellulosic biomass. However, the presence of lignin hinders this process. Recently, a novel cosolvent based biomass pretreatment method called CELF (Cosolvent Enhanced Lignocellulosic Fractionation) which employs tetrahydrofuran (THF) in a single phase mixture with water, was found to be highly effective at solubilizing and extracting lignin from lignocellulosic biomass and achieving high yields of fermentable sugars. Here, using all-atom molecular-dynamics simulation, we find that THF preferentially solvates lignin, and in doing so, shifts the equilibrium configurational distribution of the biopolymer from a crumpled globule to coil, independent of temperature. Whereas pure water is a bad solvent for lignin, the THF : water cosolvent acts as a "theta" solvent, in which solvent : lignin and lignin : lignin interactions are approximately equivalent in strength. Furthermore, under these conditions, polymers do not aggregate, thus providing a mechanism for the observed lignin solubilization that facilitates unfettered access of celluloytic enzymes to cellulose.
- Authors:
-
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States)
- Univ. of California, Riverside, CA (United States); Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF); Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). BioEnergy Science Center (BESC)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1327653
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC05-00OR22725
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Green Chemistry
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 18; Journal Issue: 5; Journal ID: ISSN 1463-9262
- Publisher:
- Royal Society of Chemistry
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 09 BIOMASS FUELS
Citation Formats
Smith, Micholas Dean, Mostofian, Barmak, Cheng, Xiaolin, Petridis, Loukas, Cai, Charles M., Wyman, Charles E., and Smith, Jeremy C. Cosolvent pretreatment in cellulosic biofuel production: Effect of tetrahydrofuran-water on lignin structure and dynamics. United States: N. p., 2015.
Web. doi:10.1039/C5GC01952D.
Smith, Micholas Dean, Mostofian, Barmak, Cheng, Xiaolin, Petridis, Loukas, Cai, Charles M., Wyman, Charles E., & Smith, Jeremy C. Cosolvent pretreatment in cellulosic biofuel production: Effect of tetrahydrofuran-water on lignin structure and dynamics. United States. https://doi.org/10.1039/C5GC01952D
Smith, Micholas Dean, Mostofian, Barmak, Cheng, Xiaolin, Petridis, Loukas, Cai, Charles M., Wyman, Charles E., and Smith, Jeremy C. Mon .
"Cosolvent pretreatment in cellulosic biofuel production: Effect of tetrahydrofuran-water on lignin structure and dynamics". United States. https://doi.org/10.1039/C5GC01952D. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1327653.
@article{osti_1327653,
title = {Cosolvent pretreatment in cellulosic biofuel production: Effect of tetrahydrofuran-water on lignin structure and dynamics},
author = {Smith, Micholas Dean and Mostofian, Barmak and Cheng, Xiaolin and Petridis, Loukas and Cai, Charles M. and Wyman, Charles E. and Smith, Jeremy C.},
abstractNote = {The deconstruction of cellulose is an essential step in the production of ethanol from lignocellulosic biomass. However, the presence of lignin hinders this process. Recently, a novel cosolvent based biomass pretreatment method called CELF (Cosolvent Enhanced Lignocellulosic Fractionation) which employs tetrahydrofuran (THF) in a single phase mixture with water, was found to be highly effective at solubilizing and extracting lignin from lignocellulosic biomass and achieving high yields of fermentable sugars. Here, using all-atom molecular-dynamics simulation, we find that THF preferentially solvates lignin, and in doing so, shifts the equilibrium configurational distribution of the biopolymer from a crumpled globule to coil, independent of temperature. Whereas pure water is a bad solvent for lignin, the THF : water cosolvent acts as a "theta" solvent, in which solvent : lignin and lignin : lignin interactions are approximately equivalent in strength. Furthermore, under these conditions, polymers do not aggregate, thus providing a mechanism for the observed lignin solubilization that facilitates unfettered access of celluloytic enzymes to cellulose.},
doi = {10.1039/C5GC01952D},
journal = {Green Chemistry},
number = 5,
volume = 18,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Oct 05 00:00:00 EDT 2015},
month = {Mon Oct 05 00:00:00 EDT 2015}
}
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