Evaluation of agave bagasse recalcitrance using AFEX™, autohydrolysis, and ionic liquid pretreatments

Jose A Perez-Pimienta; Carlos A Flores-Gómez; Héctor A Ruiz; Noppadon Sathitsuksanoh; Venkatesh Balan; Leonardo da Costa Sousa; Bruce E Dale; Seema Singh; Blake A Simmons

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2016.03.103

Evaluation of agave bagasse recalcitrance using AFEX™, autohydrolysis, and ionic liquid pretreatments

Bioresour Technol. 2016 Jul:211:216-23. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2016.03.103. Epub 2016 Mar 22.

Authors

Jose A Perez-Pimienta¹, Carlos A Flores-Gómez², Héctor A Ruiz³, Noppadon Sathitsuksanoh⁴, Venkatesh Balan², Leonardo da Costa Sousa², Bruce E Dale², Seema Singh⁵, Blake A Simmons⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical Engineering, Universidad Autónoma de Nayarit, Tepic, Mexico. Electronic address: japerez@uan.edu.mx.
² Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, DOE Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, United States.
³ Biorefinery Group, Food Research Department, School of Chemistry, Autonomous University of Coahuila, Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico.
⁴ Department of Chemical Engineering and Conn Center for Renewable Energy Research, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, United States; Joint BioEnergy Institute, Physical Biosciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Emeryville, CA, United States.
⁵ Joint BioEnergy Institute, Physical Biosciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Emeryville, CA, United States; Sandia National Laboratories, Biological and Engineering Sciences Center, Livermore, CA, United States.

PMID: 27017132
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2016.03.103

Abstract

A comparative analysis of the response of agave bagasse (AGB) to pretreatment by ammonia fiber expansion (AFEX™), autohydrolysis (AH) and ionic liquid (IL) was performed using 2D nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, wet chemistry, enzymatic saccharification and mass balances. It has been found that AFEX pretreatment preserved all carbohydrates in the biomass, whereas AH removed 62.4% of xylan and IL extracted 25% of lignin into wash streams. Syringyl and guaiacyl lignin ratio of untreated AGB was 4.3, whereas for the pretreated biomass the ratios were 4.2, 5.0 and 4.7 for AFEX, AH and IL, respectively. Using NMR spectra, the intensity of β-aryl ether units in aliphatic, anomeric, and aromatic regions decreased in all three pretreated samples when compared to untreated biomass. Yields of glucose plus xylose in the major hydrolysate stream were 42.5, 39.7 and 26.9kg per 100kg of untreated AGB for AFEX, IL and AH, respectively.

Keywords: AFEX; Agave bagasse; Autohydrolysis; Biomass pretreatment; Characterization; Comparison; Ionic liquid.

MeSH terms

Agave / chemistry*
Biomass*
Carbohydrates / isolation & purification*
Cellulose / chemistry*
Dietary Fiber / analysis

Substances

Carbohydrates
Dietary Fiber
Cellulose
bagasse