Recovery of reducing sugars and volatile fatty acids from cornstalk at different hydrothermal treatment severity

Zhangbing Zhu; Zhidan Liu; Yuanhui Zhang; Baoming Li; Haifeng Lu; Na Duan; Buchun Si; Ruixia Shen; Jianwen Lu

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2015.08.043

Recovery of reducing sugars and volatile fatty acids from cornstalk at different hydrothermal treatment severity

Bioresour Technol. 2016 Jan:199:220-227. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2015.08.043. Epub 2015 Aug 20.

Authors

Zhangbing Zhu¹, Zhidan Liu², Yuanhui Zhang³, Baoming Li¹, Haifeng Lu¹, Na Duan¹, Buchun Si¹, Ruixia Shen¹, Jianwen Lu¹

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory of Environment-Enhancing Energy (E2E) and Key Laboratory of Agricultural Engineering in Structure and Environment, Ministry of Agriculture, College of Water Resources and Civil Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China.
² Laboratory of Environment-Enhancing Energy (E2E) and Key Laboratory of Agricultural Engineering in Structure and Environment, Ministry of Agriculture, College of Water Resources and Civil Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China. Electronic address: zdliu@cau.edu.cn.
³ Laboratory of Environment-Enhancing Energy (E2E) and Key Laboratory of Agricultural Engineering in Structure and Environment, Ministry of Agriculture, College of Water Resources and Civil Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China; Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.

PMID: 26316401
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2015.08.043

Abstract

This study focused on the degradation of cornstalk and recovery of reducing sugars and volatile fatty acids (VFAs) at different hydrothermal treatment severity (HTS) (4.17-8.28, 190-320°C). The highest recovery of reducing sugars and VFAs reached 92.39% of aqueous products, equal to 34.79% based on dry biomass (HTS, 6.31). GC-MS and HPLC identified that the aqueous contained furfural (0.35-2.88 g/L) and 5-hydroxymethyl furfural (0-0.85 g/L) besides reducing sugars and VFAs. Hemicellulose and cellulose were completely degraded at a HTS of 5.70 and 7.60, respectively. SEM analysis showed that cornstalk was gradually changed from rigid and highly ordered fibrils to molten and grainy structure as HTS increased. FT-IR and TGA revealed the significant changes of organic groups for cornstalk before and after hydrothermal treatment at different HTS. Hydrothermal treatment might be promising for providing feedstocks suitable for biohythane production.

Keywords: Biohythane; Cornstalk; Hydrothermal treatment; Reducing sugars; Volatile fatty acids.

Publication types

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

MeSH terms

Biomass
Carbohydrates / analysis*
Cellulose / chemistry
Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid
Fatty Acids, Volatile / metabolism*
Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry
Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared
Temperature*
Thermogravimetry
Waste Products / analysis*
Water / pharmacology*
Zea mays / chemistry*
Zea mays / drug effects

Substances

Carbohydrates
Fatty Acids, Volatile
Waste Products
Water
Cellulose