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Title: How chip size impacts steam pretreatment effectiveness for biological conversion of poplar wood into fermentable sugars

Abstract

Here, woody biomass is highly recalcitrant to enzymatic sugar release and often requires significant size reduction and severe pretreatments to achieve economically viable sugar yields in biological production of sustainable fuels and chemicals. However, because mechanical size reduction of woody biomass can consume significant amounts of energy, it is desirable to minimize size reduction and instead pretreat larger wood chips prior to biological conversion. To date, however, most laboratory research has been performed on materials that are significantly smaller than applicable in a commercial setting. As a result, there is a limited understanding of the effects that larger biomass particle size has on the effectiveness of steam explosion pretreatment and subsequent enzymatic hydrolysis of wood chips. As a result, to address these concerns, novel downscaled analysis and high throughput pretreatment and hydrolysis (HTPH) were applied to examine whether differences exist in the composition and digestibility within a single pre-treated wood chip due to heterogeneous pretreatment across its thickness. Heat transfer modeling, Simons' stain testing, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were applied to probe the effects of pretreatment within and between pretreated wood samples to shed light on potential causes of variation, pointing to enzyme accessibility (i.e.,more » pore size) distribution being a key factor dictating enzyme digestibility in these samples. Application of these techniques demonstrated that the effectiveness of pretreatment of Populus tremuloides can vary substantially over the chip thickness at short pretreatment times, resulting in spatial digestibility effects and overall lower sugar yields in subsequent enzymatic hydrolysis. In conclusion, these results indicate that rapid decompression pretreatments (e.g., steam explosion) that specifically alter accessibility at lower temperature conditions are well suited for larger wood chips due to the non-uniformity in temperature and digestibility profiles that can result from high temperature and short pretreatment times. Furthermore, this study also demonstrated that wood chips were hydrated primarily through the natural pore structure during pretreatment, suggesting that preserving the natural grain and transport systems in wood during storage and chipping processes could likely promote pretreatment efficacy and uniformity.« less

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [4]
  1. Univ. of California, Riverside, CA (United States); Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). BioEnergy Science Center (BESC); DuPont Industrial Biosciences, Palo Alto, CA (United States)
  2. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). BioEnergy Science Center (BESC); Georgia Inst. of Technology, Atlanta, GA (United States); Washington Univ., St. Louis, MO (United States)
  3. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). BioEnergy Science Center (BESC); Georgia Inst. of Technology, Atlanta, GA (United States)
  4. Univ. of California, Riverside, CA (United States); Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). BioEnergy Science Center (BESC)
  5. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). BioEnergy Science Center (BESC); Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Joint Institute for Biological Sciences, Biosciences Division; Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). BioEnergy Science Center (BESC)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
OSTI Identifier:
1260586
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1327641
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC05-00OR22725
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Biotechnology for Biofuels
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 8; Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 1754-6834
Publisher:
BioMed Central
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES; Biofuels; Enzymes; Digestibility; Woody biomass; Pretreatment; Wood chip; Particle size; 09 BIOMASS FUELS; biofuels; enzymes; digestibility; woody biomass; pretreatment; wood chip; particle size

Citation Formats

DeMartini, Jaclyn D., Foston, Marcus, Meng, Xianzhi, Jung, Seokwon, Kumar, Rajeev, Ragauskas, Arthur J., and Wyman, Charles E. How chip size impacts steam pretreatment effectiveness for biological conversion of poplar wood into fermentable sugars. United States: N. p., 2015. Web. doi:10.1186/s13068-015-0373-1.
DeMartini, Jaclyn D., Foston, Marcus, Meng, Xianzhi, Jung, Seokwon, Kumar, Rajeev, Ragauskas, Arthur J., & Wyman, Charles E. How chip size impacts steam pretreatment effectiveness for biological conversion of poplar wood into fermentable sugars. United States. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13068-015-0373-1
DeMartini, Jaclyn D., Foston, Marcus, Meng, Xianzhi, Jung, Seokwon, Kumar, Rajeev, Ragauskas, Arthur J., and Wyman, Charles E. Wed . "How chip size impacts steam pretreatment effectiveness for biological conversion of poplar wood into fermentable sugars". United States. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13068-015-0373-1. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1260586.
@article{osti_1260586,
title = {How chip size impacts steam pretreatment effectiveness for biological conversion of poplar wood into fermentable sugars},
author = {DeMartini, Jaclyn D. and Foston, Marcus and Meng, Xianzhi and Jung, Seokwon and Kumar, Rajeev and Ragauskas, Arthur J. and Wyman, Charles E.},
abstractNote = {Here, woody biomass is highly recalcitrant to enzymatic sugar release and often requires significant size reduction and severe pretreatments to achieve economically viable sugar yields in biological production of sustainable fuels and chemicals. However, because mechanical size reduction of woody biomass can consume significant amounts of energy, it is desirable to minimize size reduction and instead pretreat larger wood chips prior to biological conversion. To date, however, most laboratory research has been performed on materials that are significantly smaller than applicable in a commercial setting. As a result, there is a limited understanding of the effects that larger biomass particle size has on the effectiveness of steam explosion pretreatment and subsequent enzymatic hydrolysis of wood chips. As a result, to address these concerns, novel downscaled analysis and high throughput pretreatment and hydrolysis (HTPH) were applied to examine whether differences exist in the composition and digestibility within a single pre-treated wood chip due to heterogeneous pretreatment across its thickness. Heat transfer modeling, Simons' stain testing, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were applied to probe the effects of pretreatment within and between pretreated wood samples to shed light on potential causes of variation, pointing to enzyme accessibility (i.e., pore size) distribution being a key factor dictating enzyme digestibility in these samples. Application of these techniques demonstrated that the effectiveness of pretreatment of Populus tremuloides can vary substantially over the chip thickness at short pretreatment times, resulting in spatial digestibility effects and overall lower sugar yields in subsequent enzymatic hydrolysis. In conclusion, these results indicate that rapid decompression pretreatments (e.g., steam explosion) that specifically alter accessibility at lower temperature conditions are well suited for larger wood chips due to the non-uniformity in temperature and digestibility profiles that can result from high temperature and short pretreatment times. Furthermore, this study also demonstrated that wood chips were hydrated primarily through the natural pore structure during pretreatment, suggesting that preserving the natural grain and transport systems in wood during storage and chipping processes could likely promote pretreatment efficacy and uniformity.},
doi = {10.1186/s13068-015-0373-1},
journal = {Biotechnology for Biofuels},
number = 1,
volume = 8,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed Dec 09 00:00:00 EST 2015},
month = {Wed Dec 09 00:00:00 EST 2015}
}

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Cited by: 17 works
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Partial acid hydrolysis of cellulosic materials as a pretreatment for enzymatic hydrolysis
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The characterization of pretreated lignocellulosic substrates prior to enzymatic hydrolysis, part 1: A modified Simons' staining technique
journal, September 2008

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journal, April 2010


Changes in composition and sugar release across the annual rings of Populus wood and implications on recalcitrance
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Changes in the Structure of the Cellulose Fiber Wall during Dilute Acid Pretreatment in Populus Studied by 1 H and 2 H NMR
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Lignin modification improves fermentable sugar yields for biofuel production
journal, June 2007

  • Chen, Fang; Dixon, Richard A.
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  • DOI: 10.1038/nbt1316

Composition and hydrothermal pretreatment and enzymatic saccharification performance of grasses and legumes from a mixed-species prairie
journal, January 2011

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  • DOI: 10.1186/1754-6834-4-52

Absolute Moisture Content Determination of Aspen Wood Below the Fiber Saturation Point using Pulsed NMR
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Works referencing / citing this record:

Steam Explosion of Beech Wood: Effect of the Particle Size on the Xylans Recovery
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Peroxisomes in higher plants: an example of metabolic adaptability
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Cell differentiation in the vascular cambium: new tool, 120-year debate
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Flowthrough pretreatment with very dilute acid provides insights into high lignin contribution to biomass recalcitrance
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Pretreatment for biorefineries: a review of common methods for efficient utilisation of lignocellulosic materials
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Cell differentiation in the vascular cambium: new tool, 120-year debate
journal, August 2018

  • Ramos, Ana C.; Regan, Sharon
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  • DOI: 10.1093/jxb/ery285

Flowthrough pretreatment with very dilute acid provides insights into high lignin contribution to biomass recalcitrance
journal, November 2016