Combined dilute hydrochloric acid and alkaline wet oxidation pretreatment to improve sugar recovery of corn stover. (January 2019) - An, Shengxin
Highlights: DA-AWO pretreatment is superior to AWO-DA in improving enzymatic hydrolysis. Ammonium hydroxide wet oxidation can significantly remove the lignin. DA-AWO was an effective pretreatment process. 71.5% of glucan yield was achieved at a low enzyme loading of 3 FPU·g −1 substrate. Abstract: Two-stage dilute hydrochloric acid (DA)/aqueous ammonia wet oxidation (AWO) pretreatment was used to recover the sugars of corn stover. The morphology characterizations of samples were detected by SEM, BET and SXT. The results showed that DA-AWO process demonstrated a positive effect on sugar recovery compared to AWO-DA. 82.8% of xylan was recovered in the first stage of DA-AWO process at 120 °C for 40 min with 1 wt% HCl. The second stage was performed under relative mild reaction conditions (130 °C, 12.6 wt% ammonium hydroxide, 3.0 MPa O2, 40 min), and 86.1% lignin could be removed. 71.5% of glucan was achieved with a low enzyme dosage (3 FPU·g −1 ) in the following enzymatic hydrolysis. DA-AWO pretreatment was effective due to its sufficient hydrolysis of hemicellulose in the first stage and remarkably removal of the lignin in the second stage, resulting in high sugar recovery with a low enzyme dosage.