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Potential of Potassium Hydroxide Pretreatment of Switchgrass for Fermentable Sugar Production

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Abstract

Chemical pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass has been extensively investigated for sugar generation and subsequent fuel production. Alkaline pretreatment has emerged as one of the popular chemical pretreatment methods, but most attempts thus far have utilized NaOH for the pretreatment process. This study aimed at investigating the potential of potassium hydroxide (KOH) as a viable alternative alkaline reagent for lignocellulosic pretreatment based on its different reactivity patterns compared to NaOH. Performer switchgrass was pretreated at KOH concentrations of 0.5–2 % for varying treatment times of 6–48 h, 6–24 h, and 0.25–1 h at 21, 50, and 121 °C, respectively. The pretreatments resulted in the highest percent sugar retention of 99.26 % at 0.5 %, 21 °C, 12 h while delignification up to 55.4 % was observed with 2 % KOH, 121 °C, 1 h. Six pretreatment conditions were selected for subsequent enzymatic hydrolysis with Cellic CTec2® for sugar generation. The pretreatment condition of 0.5 % KOH, 24 h, 21 °C was determined to be the most effective as it utilized the least amount of KOH while generating 582.4 mg sugar/g raw biomass for a corresponding percent carbohydrate conversion of 91.8 %.

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Acknowledgments

The authors appreciate the input by Dr. Sanjeev Tyagi, Principal Scientist, Central Institute of Post Harvest Engineering and Technology (CIPHET), Ludhiana, Punjab, India, during the initiation of this study. They would like to acknowledge the partial financial support for this research provided by National Agricultural Innovation Project, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, North Carolina State University (NCSU), Campus Box 7625, Raleigh, NC, 27695, USA

    Rajat Sharma & Ratna R. Sharma-Shivappa

  2. College of Agricultural Engineering, University of Agricultural Sciences, Raichur, Karnataka, India

    Vijaykumar Palled

  3. Department of Statistics, NCSU, Campus Box 8203, Raleigh, NC, 27695, USA

    Jason Osborne

  4. North Carolina State University, Campus Box 7625, Raleigh, NC, 27695-7625, USA

    Ratna R. Sharma-Shivappa

Authors
  1. Rajat Sharma
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  2. Vijaykumar Palled
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  3. Ratna R. Sharma-Shivappa
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  4. Jason Osborne
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Correspondence to Ratna R. Sharma-Shivappa.

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R. Sharma and V. Palled made equal contributions to this study.

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Sharma, R., Palled, V., Sharma-Shivappa, R.R. et al. Potential of Potassium Hydroxide Pretreatment of Switchgrass for Fermentable Sugar Production. Appl Biochem Biotechnol 169, 761–772 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12010-012-0009-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12010-012-0009-x

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