Correlation between physicochemical characteristics of lignin deposited on autohydrolyzed wood chips and their cellulase enzymatic hydrolysis

Wenchao Jia; Haiqiang Shi; Xueru Sheng; Yanzhu Guo; Pedram Fatehi; Meihong Niu

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2022.126941

Correlation between physicochemical characteristics of lignin deposited on autohydrolyzed wood chips and their cellulase enzymatic hydrolysis

Bioresour Technol. 2022 Apr:350:126941. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2022.126941. Epub 2022 Mar 2.

Authors

Wenchao Jia¹, Haiqiang Shi², Xueru Sheng¹, Yanzhu Guo¹, Pedram Fatehi³, Meihong Niu¹

Affiliations

¹ Liaoning Key Laboratory of Lignocellulose Chemistry and Biomaterials, College of Light Industry and Chemical Engineering, Dalian Polytechnic University, Dalian 116034, China; Liaoning Collaborative Innovation Center for Lignocellulosic Biorefinery, College of Light Industry and Chemical Engineering, Dalian Polytechnic University, Dalian 116034, China.
² Liaoning Key Laboratory of Lignocellulose Chemistry and Biomaterials, College of Light Industry and Chemical Engineering, Dalian Polytechnic University, Dalian 116034, China; Liaoning Collaborative Innovation Center for Lignocellulosic Biorefinery, College of Light Industry and Chemical Engineering, Dalian Polytechnic University, Dalian 116034, China. Electronic address: shihq@dlpu.edu.cn.
³ Biorefining Research Institute and Chemical Engineering Department, Lakehead University, Thunder Bay P7B5E1 ON, Canada.

PMID: 35247555
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2022.126941

Abstract

Enzymatic hydrolysis is a method to generate biofuel from biomass, and autohydrolysis is a popular method to pretreat biomass prior to enzymatic hydrolysis. The primary aim of the present study was to determine the role of lignin produced in the autohydrolysis process on the enzymatic hydrolysis of biomass. The HSQC and ³¹P NMR analyses confirmed that β-O-4 of lignin was reduced, while β-5, β-β, and S/G-ratio of lignin were increased with intensifying the hydrolysis intensity.The increase in the hydrolysis intensity significantly enhanced the condensed and non-condensed phenolic OH group of lignin. Interestingly, the cellulase enzyme adsorbed more on lignin that had more phenolic content, and its association with lignin reduced its activity for hydrolyzing cellulose microcrystals. Strong negative correlations were observed between the enzymatic hydrolysis yield and the condensed S-OH (r² = 0.978) and G-OH (r² = 0.961) of lignin generated in the autohydrolysis process.

Keywords: Autohydrolysis; Enzyme; Inhibition; Lignin; NMR.

MeSH terms

Biomass
Cellulase* / analysis
Cellulose / chemistry
Hydrolysis
Lignin* / chemistry
Wood / chemistry

Substances

Cellulose
Lignin
Cellulase