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Structural Insights into Rice Straw Pretreated by Hot-Compressed Water in Relation to Enzymatic Hydrolysis

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Abstract

Pretreatment-induced structural alteration is critical in influencing the rate and extent of enzymatic saccharification of lignocellulosic biomass. The present work has investigated structural features of rice straw pretreated by hot-compressed water (HCW) from 140 to 240 °C for 10 or 30 min and enzymatic hydrolysis profiles of pretreated rice straw. Compositional profiles of pretreated rice straw were examined to offer the basis for structural changes. The wide-angle X-ray diffraction analysis revealed possible modification in crystalline microstructure of cellulose and the severity-dependent variation of crystallinity. The specific surface area (SSA) of pretreated samples was able to achieve more than 10-fold of that of the raw material and was in linear relationship with the removal of acetyl groups and xylan. The glucose yield by enzymatic hydrolysis of pretreated materials correlated linearly with the SSA increase and the dissolution of acetyl and xylan. A quantitatively intrinsic relationship was suggested to exist between enzymatic hydrolysis and the extraction of hemicellulose components in hydrothermally treated rice straw, and SSA was considered one important structural parameter signaling the efficiency of enzymatic digestibility in HCW-treated materials in which hemicellulose removal and lignin redistribution happened.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Dr. Yoshikuni Teramoto and Ms Noriko Tanaka for their help in the WAXD measurement and Dr. Shinji Fujimoto for his assistance in using the surface area analyzer. We acknowledge Dr. Tsuyoshi Sakaki for his comments on the experimental results. This work was partly supported by Japan International Cooperation Agency in the “Research on Biomass Technology” program and Beijing Natural Science Foundation (5133035).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biomass Refinery Research Center, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, 3-11-32 Kagamiyama, Higashi-Hiroshima, 739-0046, Japan

    Guoce Yu, Shinichi Yano, Hiroyuki Inoue, Seiichi Inoue & Takashi Endo

  2. Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Guoce Yu & Jianlong Wang

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  1. Guoce Yu
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  2. Shinichi Yano
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  3. Hiroyuki Inoue
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  5. Jianlong Wang
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Correspondence to Guoce Yu or Shinichi Yano.

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Yu, G., Yano, S., Inoue, H. et al. Structural Insights into Rice Straw Pretreated by Hot-Compressed Water in Relation to Enzymatic Hydrolysis. Appl Biochem Biotechnol 174, 2278–2294 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12010-014-1199-1

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