Promising seawater hydrothermal combining electro-assisted pretreatment for corn stover valorization within a biorefinery concept

Yue Wu; Xinting Li; Fucheng Li; Zhe Ling; Yao Meng; Fushan Chen; Zhe Ji

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2022.127066

Promising seawater hydrothermal combining electro-assisted pretreatment for corn stover valorization within a biorefinery concept

Bioresour Technol. 2022 May:351:127066. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2022.127066. Epub 2022 Mar 26.

Authors

Yue Wu¹, Xinting Li¹, Fucheng Li¹, Zhe Ling², Yao Meng¹, Fushan Chen¹, Zhe Ji³

Affiliations

¹ College of Marine Science and Bioengineering, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266042, China.
² Jiangsu Co-Innovation Center of Efficient Processing and Utilization of Forest Resources, College of Chemical Engineering, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing 210037, China.
³ College of Marine Science and Bioengineering, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266042, China. Electronic address: jizhe@qust.edu.cn.

PMID: 35351556
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2022.127066

Abstract

In this study, for the first time, seawater hydrothermal (SH) pretreatment combining subsequent electrogenerated alkaline hydrogen peroxide (EAHP) pretreatment was proposed to achieve an effective fractionation of corn stover into high value-added products. During SH pretreatment, complex ions in natural seawater (Mg²⁺, Ca²⁺ and Cl^-) were used to promote depolymerization of xylan into xylo-oligosaccharides with 49.37% yield (190 °C,40 min), 18.52% higher than that of deionized water. Subsequent EAHP treatment not only provided a green and economical way to produce hydrogen peroxide but also synchronously realized satisfied delignification (94.91%). The integrated pretreatment resulted in 91.16% of glucose yield, which was about 5.6 times more than that of unpretreated corn stover. In addition, the recovered lignin fraction which has a potential application in functional materials were investigated by FTIR, 2D-HSQC NMR and GPC. In short, this work provided a novel and environmentally-friendly strategy for biorefinery-based fractionation of corn stover.

Keywords: Biorefinery; Corn stover; Electrogenerated alkaline hydrogen peroxide pretreatment; Seawater hydrothermal pretreatment; Two-stage pretreatment.

MeSH terms

Hydrogen Peroxide*
Hydrolysis
Lignin
Seawater
Zea mays* / chemistry

Substances

Lignin
Hydrogen Peroxide