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Can delignification decrease cellulose digestibility in acid pretreated corn stover?

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Abstract

It has previously been shown that the improved digestibility of dilute acid pretreated corn stover is at least partially due to the removal of xylan and the consequent increase in accessibility of the cellulose to cellobiohydrolase enzymes. We now report on the impact that lignin removal has on the accessibility and digestibility of dilute acid pretreated corn stover. Samples of corn stover were subjected to dilute sulfuric acid pretreatment with and without simultaneous (partial) lignin removal. In addition, some samples were completely delignified after the pretreatment step using acidified sodium chlorite. The accessibility and digestibility of the samples were tested using a fluorescence-labeled cellobiohydrolase (Trichoderma reesei Cel7A) purified from a commercial cellulase preparation. Partial delignification of corn stover during dilute acid pretreatment was shown to improve cellulose digestibility by T. reesei Cel7A; however, decreasing the lignin content below 5% (g g−1) by treatment with acidified sodium chlorite resulted in a dramatic reduction in cellulose digestibility. Importantly, this effect was found to be enhanced in samples with lower xylan contents suggesting that the near complete removal of xylan and lignin may cause aggregation of the cellulose microfibrils resulting in decreased cellulase accessibility.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Stuart Black for preparing the clean fractionation process samples, Dan Schell for providing the pilot-scale vertical reactor samples and the United States Department of Energy, Office of the Biomass Program for funding this work.

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Author notes

  1. Claudia I. Ishizawa

    Present address: Shell International Exploration and Production, 3737 Bellaire Blvd., Houston, TX, 77025, USA

  2. Tina Jeoh

    Present address: Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, University of California, Davis, One Shields Ave., Davis, CA, 95616, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chemical and Biosciences Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 1617 Cole Blvd., Golden, CO, 80401-3393, USA

    Claudia I. Ishizawa, Tina Jeoh, William S. Adney, Michael E. Himmel & David K. Johnson

  2. National Bioenergy Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 1617 Cole Blvd., Golden, CO, 80401-3393, USA

    Mark F. Davis

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  1. Claudia I. Ishizawa
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  2. Tina Jeoh
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  4. Michael E. Himmel
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Correspondence to David K. Johnson.

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Ishizawa, C.I., Jeoh, T., Adney, W.S. et al. Can delignification decrease cellulose digestibility in acid pretreated corn stover?. Cellulose 16, 677–686 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-009-9313-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-009-9313-1

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