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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Albany, California » Western Regional Research Center » Healthy Processed Foods Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #250100
Title: Enzymatic saccharification of dilute acid pretreated saline crops for fermentable sugar production

Author
item ZHENG, YI - Chinese Academy Of Agriculture & Mechanical Sciences
item Pan, James
item ZHANG, RUIHONG - University Of California
item WANG, DONGHAI - Kansas State University

Submitted to: Applied Energy
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/11/2009
Publication Date: 4/11/2009
Citation: Zheng, Y., Pan, J., Zhang, R., Wang, D. 2009. Enzymatic saccharification of dilute acid pretreated saline crops for fermentable sugar production. Applied Energy. 86(11):2459-2465.

Interpretive Summary: This research studied the potential of using saline crops for producing fermentable sugar through enzymatic saccharification. It was concluded that Creeping Wild Ryegrass was the best saline crop for sugar production.

Technical Abstract: Four saline crops [athel (Tamarix aphylla L), eucalyptus (Eucalyptus camaldulensis), Jose Tall Wheatgrass (Agropyron elongatum), and Creeping Wild Ryegrass (Leymus triticoides)] that are used in farms for salt uptake from soil and drainage irrigation water have the potential for fuel ethanol production because they don’t take a large number of arable lands. Dilute sulfuric acid pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis were conducted to select the optimum pretreatment conditions and the best saline crop for further enzymatic hydrolysis research. The optimum dilute acid pretreatment conditions included T = 165 _C, t = 8 min, and sulfuric acid concentration = 1.4% (w/w). Creeping Wild Ryegrass was decided to be the best saline crop. Solid loading, cellulase and b-glucosidase concentrations had significant effects on the enzymatic hydrolysis of dilute acid pretreated Creeping Wild Ryegrass. Glucose concentration increased by 36 mg/mL and enzymatic digestibility decreased by 20% when the solid loading increased from 4 to 12%. With 8% solid loading, enzymatic digestibility increased by over 30% with the increase of cellulose concentration from 5 to 15 FPU/g-cellulose. Under given cellulase concentration of 15 FPU/g-cellulose,60% increase of enzymatic digestibility of pretreated Creeping Wild Ryegrass was obtained with the increase of b-glucosidase concentration up to 15 CBU/g-cellulose. With a high solid loading of 10%, fed-batch operation generated 12% and 18% higher enzymatic digestibility and glucose concentration, respectively, than batch process.