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The impact of particle size and initial solid loading on thermochemical pretreatment of wheat straw for improving sugar recovery

Bioprocess and Biosystems Engineering volume 37, pages 1427–1436 (2014)Cite this article

Abstract

This work studies the effect of initial solid load (4–32 %; w/v, DS) and particle size (0.41–50 mm) on monosaccharide yield of wheat straw subjected to dilute H2SO4 (0.75 %, v/v) pretreatment and enzymatic saccharification. Response surface methodology (RSM) based on a full factorial design (FFD) was used for the statistical analysis of pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis. The highest xylose yield obtained during pretreatment (ca. 86 %; of theoretical) was achieved at 4 % (w/v, DS) and 25 mm. The solid fraction obtained from the first set of experiments was subjected to enzymatic hydrolysis at constant enzyme dosage (17 FPU/g); statistical analysis revealed that glucose yield was favored with solids pretreated at low initial solid loads and small particle sizes. Dynamic experiments showed that glucose yield did not increase after 48 h of enzymatic hydrolysis. Once established pretreatment conditions, experiments were carried out with several initial solid loading (4–24 %; w/v, DS) and enzyme dosages (5–50 FPU/g). Two straw sizes (0.41 and 50 mm) were used for verification purposes. The highest glucose yield (ca. 55 %; of theoretical) was achieved at 4 % (w/v, DS), 0.41 mm and 50 FPU/g. Statistical analysis of experiments showed that at low enzyme dosage, particle size had a remarkable effect over glucose yield and initial solid load was the main factor for glucose yield.

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Acknowledgments

Partial financial support from Secretary of Energy (SENER), México (Project SENER 2009-150001) is acknowledged.

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  1. Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del, Instituto Politécnico Nacional Unidad Guadalajara de Ingeniería Avanzada, Control Automático, Guadalajara, Mexico

    Oscar A. Rojas-Rejón & Arturo Sánchez

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  1. Oscar A. Rojas-Rejón
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  2. Arturo Sánchez
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Correspondence to Oscar A. Rojas-Rejón.

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Rojas-Rejón, O.A., Sánchez, A. The impact of particle size and initial solid loading on thermochemical pretreatment of wheat straw for improving sugar recovery. Bioprocess Biosyst Eng 37, 1427–1436 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-013-1115-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-013-1115-z

Keywords

  • Thermochemical pretreatment
  • Wheat straw
  • Enzymatic saccharification
  • Cellulosic ethanol