Abstract
Cyrene organosolv fractionation effectively extracted 78 % of lignin from recalcitrant softwood biomass pine at a mild temperature of 120 °C. However, the enzymatic conversion of the fractionated cellulose-rich solid did not improve significantly. Alkali post-incubation of the fractionated cellulose fraction notably enhanced the glucan conversion. This phenomenon has also been observed in other organosolv processes, but how this approach transforms pretreated biomass has not yet been comprehensively investigated. In this study, small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) was employed to understand the structural changes in biomass during fractionation and post-incubation at the nanometer scale. No lignin aggregation was found on the microfibrils, whereas the distance between the microfibrils increased after pretreatment and decreased after alkaline post-incubation. These results suggests that the Cyrene molecules remained between the microfibrils and were removed by post-incubation. In addition, the pine lignin recovered after pretreatment was characterized by NMR to understand the impact of Cyrene pretreatment on the lignin structure.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 153046 |
Journal | Chemical Engineering Journal |
Volume | 494 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Aug 15 2024 |
Funding
This research was partially funded by the DOE Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research under the Genomic Sciences Program (FWP ERKP752) and the Center for Structural Molecular Biology, CSMB, a structural biology resource (FWP ERKP291). SAXS measurements were performed at the LiX beamline of the National Synchrotron Light Source II, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility, operated for the DOE Office of Science by Brookhaven National Laboratory under contract no. DE-SC0012704. LiX beamline is supported under the Center for BioMolecular Structure (CBMS), which is primarily supported by the National Institutes of Health and National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) through a Center Core P30 Grant (P30GM133893) and by the DOE Office of Biological and Environmental Research (KP1605010). Dr. Logan Kearney is acknowledged for operational support of the Xeuss 3 SAXS/WAXS instrument supported by the Chemical Sciences Division at ORNL. The United States Government and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledge that the United States Government retains a non-exclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript or allow others to do so for United States Government purposes. The Department of Energy will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan (http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan). The views and opinions of the authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or any agency thereof. Neither the United States Government nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, expressed or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. This research was partially funded by the DOE Office of Science , Office of Biological and Environmental Research under the Genomic Sciences Program ( FWP ERKP752 ) and the Center for Structural Molecular Biology, CSMB , a structural biology resource ( FWP ERKP291 ). SAXS measurements were performed at the LiX beamline of the National Synchrotron Light Source II, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility, operated for the DOE Office of Science by Brookhaven National Laboratory under contract no. DE-SC0012704 . LiX beamline is supported under the Center for BioMolecular Structure (CBMS), which is primarily supported by the National Institutes of Health and National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) through a Center Core P30 Grant ( P30GM133893 ) and by the DOE Office of Biological and Environmental Research ( KP1605010 ). Dr. Logan Kearney is acknowledged for operational support of the Xeuss 3 SAXS/WAXS instrument supported by the Chemical Sciences Division at ORNL .
Keywords
- Alkaline post-incubation
- Cyrene
- small-angle X-ray scattering
- Softwood