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Effective Biomass Fractionation through Oxygen-Enhanced Alkaline-Oxidative Pretreatment

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1877689· OSTI ID:1877689
 [1];  [2];  [2];  [3];  [2];  [3];  [3];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [4];  [2];  [3];  [2]
  1. Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI (United States); Michigan State University
  2. Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI (United States)
  3. Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States)
  4. Montana State Univ., Bozeman, MT (United States)
  5. The Michigan Biotechnology Institute, Lansing, MI (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations
The high recalcitrance of plant cell walls is an obstacle for effective chemical or biological conversion into renewable chemicals and transportation fuels. Here, we investigated the utilization of both oxygen (O2) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) as co-oxidants during alkalineoxidative pretreatment to improve biomass fractionation and increase enzymatic digestibility. The oxidative pretreatment of hybrid poplar was studied over a variety of conditions. Employing O2 in addition to H2O2 as a co-oxidant during the two-stage alkaline pre-extraction/coppercatalyzed alkaline hydrogen peroxide (Cu-AHP) pretreatment process resulted in a substantial improvement in delignification relative to using H2O2 alone during the second-stage Cu-AHP pretreatment, leading to high overall sugar yields even at H2O2 loadings as low as 2% (w/w of original biomass). The presence of H2O2, however, was both critical and synergistic. Performing analogous reactions in the absence of H2O2 resulted in approximately 25% less delignification and a 30% decrease in sugar yields. The lignin isolated from this dual oxidant second stage had high aliphatic hydroxyl group content and reactivity to isocyanate, indicating that it is a promising substrate for the production of polyurethanes. To test the suitability of the isolated lignin as a source of aromatic monomers, the lignin was subjected to a sequential Bobbitt’s salt oxidation followed by formic-acid catalyzed depolymerization process. Monomer yields of approximately 17% (w/w) were obtained, and the difference in yields was not significant between lignin isolated from our Cu-AHP process with and without O2 as a co-oxidant. Thus, the addition of O2 did not lead to significant lignin crosslinking, a result consistent with the twodimensional heteronuclear single-quantum coherence (2D HSQC) NMR spectra of the isolated lignin.
Research Organization:
Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Transportation Office. Bioenergy Technologies Office
DOE Contract Number:
EE0008148
OSTI ID:
1877689
Report Number(s):
DOE-MSU--0008148-1
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Related Subjects

09 BIOMASS FUELS
Alkaline hydrogen peroxide pretreatment
Aromatic monomers
Catalysis
Cellulosic biofuels
Copper
Lignin
Oxidative depolymerization
Polyurethanes