Supercritical water treatment for cello-oligosaccharide production from microcrystalline cellulose

Lasse K Tolonen; Minna Juvonen; Klaus Niemelä; Atte Mikkelson; Maija Tenkanen; Herbert Sixta

doi:10.1016/j.carres.2014.10.012

Supercritical water treatment for cello-oligosaccharide production from microcrystalline cellulose

Carbohydr Res. 2015 Jan 12:401:16-23. doi: 10.1016/j.carres.2014.10.012. Epub 2014 Oct 25.

Authors

Lasse K Tolonen¹, Minna Juvonen², Klaus Niemelä³, Atte Mikkelson⁴, Maija Tenkanen⁵, Herbert Sixta⁶

Affiliations

¹ Aalto University, Department of Forest Products Technology, PO Box 16300, FI-00076 Aalto, Finland. Electronic address: lasse.tolonen@aalto.fi.
² Department of Food and Environmental Sciences, PO Box 27, FI-00014 University of Helsinki, Finland. Electronic address: minna.juvonen@helsinki.fi.
³ VTT, PO Box 1000, FI-02044 VTT, Finland. Electronic address: klaus.niemela@vtt.fi.
⁴ VTT, PO Box 1000, FI-02044 VTT, Finland. Electronic address: atte.mikkelson@vtt.fi.
⁵ Department of Food and Environmental Sciences, PO Box 27, FI-00014 University of Helsinki, Finland. Electronic address: maija.tenkanen@helsinki.fi.
⁶ Aalto University, Department of Forest Products Technology, PO Box 16300, FI-00076 Aalto, Finland. Electronic address: herbert.sixta@aalto.fi.

PMID: 25464077
DOI: 10.1016/j.carres.2014.10.012

Abstract

Microcrystalline cellulose was treated in supercritical water at 380 °C and at a pressure of 250 bar for 0.2, 0.4, and 0.6s. The yield of the ambient-water-insoluble precipitate and its average molar mass decreased with an extended treatment time. The highest yield of 42 wt% for DP2-9 cello-oligosaccharides was achieved after the 0.4s treatment. The reaction products included also 11 wt% ambient-water-insoluble precipitate with a DP(w) of 16, and 6.1 wt% monomeric sugars, and 37 wt% unidentified degradation products. Oligo- and monosaccharide-derived dehydration and retro-aldol fragmentation products were analyzed via a combination of HPAEC-PAD-MS, ESI-MS/MS, and GC-MS techniques. The total amount of degradation products increased with treatment time, and fragmented (glucosyl(n)-erythrose, glucosyl(n)-glycolaldehyde), and dehydrated (glucosyl(n)-levoglucosan) were identified as the main oligomeric degradation products from the cello-oligosaccharides.

Keywords: Biorefinery; Cellulose; Oligosaccharide; Prebiotics; Supercritical water.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Cellulose / chemistry*
Chemical Precipitation
Oligosaccharides / chemistry*
Pressure
Solubility
Temperature
Water / chemistry*
Water Purification / methods*

Substances

Oligosaccharides
Water
Cellulose
microcrystalline cellulose