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Co-production of soluble sugars and lignin from short rotation white poplar and black locust crops

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Abstract

Co-production of sugars and lignin from short rotation white poplar and black locust crops is evaluated. Acid-catalyzed ethanol/water organosolv and dilute acid pretreatments are analyzed. Resulting pretreated materials are hydrolyzed enzymatically for sugar production, whereas solubilized lignins from pretreatment liquors are precipitated, analyzed by analytical standard, and characterized by FTIR spectroscopy, SEC chromatography, and solid-state 13C NMR. Organosolv produces in both materials a high delignification degree (46–50%) and a considerable hemicelluloses removal (62–67%), while acid hydrolysis is more efficient at removing hemicelluloses (86–90%), showing a delignification of 43% (white poplar) and 31% (black locust). Organosolv followed by enzymatic hydrolysis results in 37.8% (white poplar) and 38.2% (black locust) total sugars yields, whereas acid pretreatment and subsequent saccharification show higher sugars yields for white poplar (43.3%) and lower for black locust (29.1%). Regarding lignin samples, higher concentrations are recovered from organosolv liquors of both materials (67.8% and 44.9% yields for white poplar and black locust, respectively) compared to the quantities extracted from acid liquors of white poplar (4.6%) and black locust (6.8%). Organosolv lignins display a lower content of S units and phenols, and higher molecular weights. Contrary, acid lignins consist mainly of phenolic fragments with a higher content of S units and lower molecular weights.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the Comunidad de Madrid and MICIU for funding this study via Projects SUSTEC-CM S2018/EMT-4348 and RTI2018-096080-B-C22, respectively. Raquel Martín-Sampedro acknowledges an IJCI contract (IJCI-2016-28403).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Forestry Products Department, INIA-CIFOR, Ctra de la Coruña Km 7.5, 28040, Madrid, Spain

    Laura Jiménez-López, Raquel Martín-Sampedro, María E. Eugenio & David Ibarra

  2. Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Madrid (ICMM), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz 3, Cantoblanco, 28049, Madrid, Spain

    Raquel Martín-Sampedro

  3. General Services of Research SGIKER, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Edificio Joxe Mari Korta Avda. Tolosa 72, 20018, Donostia-San Sebastian, Spain

    José I. Santos

  4. Silviculture and Forest Management Department, INIA-CIFOR, Ctra de la Coruña Km 7.5, 28040, Madrid, Spain

    Hortensia Sixto & Isabel Cañellas

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  1. Laura Jiménez-López
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  2. Raquel Martín-Sampedro
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Jiménez-López, L., Martín-Sampedro, R., Eugenio, M.E. et al. Co-production of soluble sugars and lignin from short rotation white poplar and black locust crops. Wood Sci Technol 54, 1617–1643 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00226-020-01217-x

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