Sodium percarbonate (SP), a kind of alkaline strong oxidant, was applied to corncob pretreatment. The optimized pretreatment conditions were at 4% (w/v) SP concentration with solid-to-liquid (SLR) ratio of 1:10 treating for 4 hr at 60°C. This pretreatment resulted in 91.06% of cellulose and 84.08% of hemicellulose recoveries with 34.09% of lignin removal in corncob. The reducing sugar yield from SP-pretreated corncob was 0.56 g/g after 72 hr of enzymatic hydrolysis, 1.75-folds higher than that from raw corncob. 2,3-butanediol production by Enterobacer cloacae in simultaneous saccharification fermentation was 29.18 g/L using SP-pretreated corncob as a substrate, which was 11.12 times of that using raw corncob. Scanning electron microscope, X-ray diffraction, and Fourier transform infrared spectra analysis indicated that physical characteristics, crystallinity, and structure of corncob had changed obviously after SP pretreatment. This simple and novel pretreatment method was effective for delignification and carbohydrate retention in microbial production of 2,3-butanediol from lignocellulose biomass.
Keywords: 2,3-butanediol; corncob; delignification; optimization; pretreatment; sodium percarbonate.