Pretreating wheat straw by the concentrated phosphoric acid plus hydrogen peroxide (PHP): Investigations on pretreatment conditions and structure changes

• Published in: Bioresource technology Vol. 199; pp. 245 - 257
• Main Authors: Wang, Qing, Hu, Jinguang, Shen, Fei, Mei, Zili, Yang, Gang, Zhang, Yanzong, Hu, Yaodong, Zhang, Jing, Deng, Shihuai
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01-01-2016
• Subjects: Cellulose - metabolism; Delignification; Enzymatic hydrolysis; Glucose - metabolism; Hemicellulose removal; Hydrogen Peroxide - pharmacology; Hydrolysis; Lignin - metabolism; Phosphoric acid plus hydrogen peroxide; Phosphoric Acids - pharmacology; Polysaccharides - metabolism; Structure characteristics; Temperature; Time Factors; Triticum - chemistry; Triticum - drug effects; Waste Products; Hemicellulose removal; Delignification; Phosphoric acid plus hydrogen peroxide; Structure characteristics; Enzymatic hydrolysis
• ISSN: 0960-8524; 1873-2976
• DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2015.07.112

•PHP concurrently promoted hemicellulose and lignin removal from wheat straw.•Hemicellulose was more sensitive to PHP than lignin, and followed by cellulose.•Hemicellulose and lignin removal were intensified by increasing temperature and time.•Higher H3PO4 proportion was positive to remove hemicellulose, negative to delignin.•92–100% cellulose were recovered with glucose yield of 29.1–32.6g/100g wheat straw.
Wheat straw was pretreated by PHP (the concentrated H3PO4 plus H2O2) to clarify effects of temperature, time and H3PO4 proportion on hemicellulose removal, delignification, cellulose recovery and enzymatic digestibility. Overall, hemicellulose removal was intensified by PHP comparing to the concentrated H3PO4. Moreover, efficient delignification specially happened in PHP pretreatment. Hemicellulose removal and delignification by PHP positively responded to temperature and time. Increasing H3PO4 proportion in PHP can promote hemicellulose removal, however, decrease the delignification. Maximum hemicellulose removal and delignification were achieved at 100% and 83.7% by PHP. Enzymatic digestibility of PHP-pretreated wheat straw was greatly improved by increasing temperature, time and H3PO4 proportion, and complete hydrolysis can be achieved consequently. As temperature of 30–40°C, time of 2.0h and H3PO4 proportion of 60% were employed, more than 92% cellulose was retained in the pretreated wheat straw, and 29.1–32.6g glucose can be harvested from 100g wheat straw.