Impact of alkali pretreatment to enzymatic hydrolysis of cork oak (Quercus variabilis)

Abstract

Dissolving part of xylan and lignin in lignocellulosic biomass by base can be used as pretreatment technique. Cork oak was pretreated with sodium hydroxide solution and the pretreatment effects were evaluated with two critical factors - NaOH concentration and pretreatment temperature. Some of xylan and lignin were removed by base pretreatment. At 90 °C and 13% NaOH pretreatment, 22.0% of lignin and 78.8% of xylan removed by base treatment. Enzymatic hydrolysis of cork oak which was pretreated at higher temperature or concentration was further improved. After pretreatment of cork oak with 13% NaOH at 90 °C, the conversion rate of cellulose to fermentable sugars were reached up to 91.3%. At ethanol fermentation with enzymatic hydrolysate from different pretreatment conditions, all enzymatic saccharification liquids were well fermented by Saccharomyces cerevisiae.