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Mechanical deconstruction of lignocellulose cell walls and their enzymatic saccharification

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Abstract

Laboratory mechanical softwood pulps (MSP) and commercial bleached softwood kraft pulps (BSKP) were mechanically fibrillated by stone grinding with a SuperMassColloider®. The extent of fibrillation was evaluated by SEM imaging, water retention value (WRV) and cellulase adsorption. Both lignin content and mechanical treatment significantly affected deconstruction and enzymatic saccharification of fibrillated MSP and BSKP. Fibrillation of MSP and BSKP cell walls occurs rapidly and then levels off; further fibrillation has only limited effect on cell wall breakdown as measured by water retention value and cellulase adsorption. Complete (100 %) saccharification can be achieved at cellulase loading of 5 FPU/g glucan for BSKP after only 15 min fibrillation with energy input of 0.69 MJ/kg. However, the presence of lignin in MSP affects the extent of fibrillation producing fibrils mainly above 1 μm. Lignin binds nonproductively to cellulases and blocks cellulose thereby reducing its accessibility. As a result, the cellulose saccharification efficiency of MSP fibrils (6 h of fibrillation, energy input of 13.33 MJ/kg) was only 55 % at same cellulase loading of 5 FPU/g glucan.

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Acknowledgments

This work was sponsored by the USDA Forest Service R&D special funding on Cellulose Nano-Materials (2012).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Forest Biomaterials, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA

    Ingrid C. Hoeger & Orlando J. Rojas

  2. Institute of Paper Science and Technology, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Sandeep S. Nair, Arthur J. Ragauskas & Yulin Deng

  3. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Arthur J. Ragauskas

  4. Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Yulin Deng

  5. USDA Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory, Madison, WI, USA

    J. Y. Zhu

Authors
  1. Ingrid C. Hoeger
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  2. Sandeep S. Nair
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  3. Arthur J. Ragauskas
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  4. Yulin Deng
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  5. Orlando J. Rojas
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  6. J. Y. Zhu
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to J. Y. Zhu.

Additional information

This work is conducted on official government time of Zhu while Hoeger and Nair were visiting scientists at the USDA Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory.

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Hoeger, I.C., Nair, S.S., Ragauskas, A.J. et al. Mechanical deconstruction of lignocellulose cell walls and their enzymatic saccharification. Cellulose 20, 807–818 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-013-9867-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-013-9867-9

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