Ionic liquids (ILs) have emerged as attractive solvents for lignocellulosic biomass pretreatment in the production of biofuels and chemical feedstocks. However, the high cost of ILs is a key deterrent to their practical application. Here, we show that acetate based ILs are effective in dramatically reducing the recalcitrance of corn stover toward enzymatic polysaccharide hydrolysis even at load...

A new process for pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass, designated the soaking in ethanol and aqueous ammonia (SEAA) process, was developed to improve hemicellulose preservation in solid form. In the SEAA process, an aqueous ammonia solution containing ethanol is used. Corn stover was treated with 15 wt.% ammonia at 1:9 solid-liquid ratio (by weight) at 60 degrees C for 24 h with ethanol add...

Ethanol has been widely used as an alternative to fossil fuels. In recent years, much attention has been devoted to ethanol production from lignocellulosic biomass. In previous research, low-moisture anhydrous ammonia (LMAA) pretreatment was investigated due to its high efficiency and less washing compared to other pretreatment methods. The purpose of this study was to determine optimal conditi...

Removal of enzyme inhibitors released during lignocellulose pretreatment is essential for economically feasible biofuel production. We tested bio-abatement to mitigate enzyme inhibitor effects observed in corn stover liquors after pretreatment with either dilute acid or liquid hot water at 10% (w/v) solids. Bio-abatement of liquors was followed by enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose. To distingui...

Lactic acid has been identified as one of the top 30 potential building-block chemicals from biomass. Therefore, the search for cheap raw materials is an objective to reduce the production costs. Efficient polymer-grade L-lactic acid production was achieved in this report by a thermophilic strain Bacillus sp. XZL4 using corn stover hydrolyzate as sole carbon source. High L-lactic acid concentra...

Heating of batch tubular reactors with fluidized sand baths and with microwaves resulted in distinctive sugar yield profiles from pretreatment and subsequent enzymatic hydrolysis of corn stover at the same time, temperature, and dilute sulfuric acid concentration combinations and hydrothermal pretreatment conditions. Microwave heated pretreatment led to faster xylan, lignin, and acetyl removal ...

BACKGROUND In the bioconversion of lignocellulosic substrates, the adsorption behavior of cellulase onto lignin has a negative effect on enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose, decreasing glucose production during enzymatic hydrolysis, thus decreasing the yield of fermentation and the production of useful products. Understanding the interaction between lignin and cellulase is necessary to optimize t...

Corn stover has potential as a bioenergy feedstock in North America. We simulated production costs for stover harvest (three-pass and two-pass with baling or chopping, and single-pass with baling or chopping) and on-farm storage (outdoor and indoor bales, outdoor wrapped bales, and chopped stover in bags, bunks, or piles). For threeand two-pass harvest, chopping was 33e45% more expensive than b...

BACKGROUND Pretreatment is essential to realize high product yields from biological conversion of naturally recalcitrant cellulosic biomass, with thermochemical pretreatments often favored for cost and performance. In this study, enzymatic digestion of solids from dilute sulfuric acid (DA), ammonia fiber expansion (AFEX™), and ionic liquid (IL) thermochemical pretreatments of corn stover were f...