Differentiated Fractionation of Various Biomass Resources by p-Toluenesulfonic Acid at Mild Conditions

Shaohua Fang; Qiuli Xia; Lin Zhang; Peng Zhan; Yan Qing; Zhiping Wu; Hui Wang; Lishu Shao; Na Liu; Jiaying He; Jin Liu

doi:10.1021/acsomega.3c00927

Differentiated Fractionation of Various Biomass Resources by p-Toluenesulfonic Acid at Mild Conditions

ACS Omega. 2023 Jun 29;8(27):24247-24255. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.3c00927. eCollection 2023 Jul 11.

Authors

Shaohua Fang^{1

2

3}, Qiuli Xia^{1

2

3}, Lin Zhang^{1

2

3}, Peng Zhan^{1

2

3}, Yan Qing^{1

2

3}, Zhiping Wu^{1

2

3}, Hui Wang^{1

2

3}, Lishu Shao^{1

2

3}, Na Liu^{1

2

3}, Jiaying He^{1

2

3}, Jin Liu^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ College of Materials Science and Engineering, Central South University of Forestry and Technology, Changsha 410004, China.
² Ministry of Forestry Bioethanol Research Center, Central South University of Forestry and Technology, Changsha 410004, China.
³ Hunan International Joint Laboratory of Woody Biomass Conversion, Central South University of Forestry and Technology, Changsha 410004, China.

Abstract

Biomass is the ideal substitute for petrochemical resources because of its renewable and abundant sources. p-Toluenesulfonic acid (p-TsOH) can effectively separate lignin from biomass under mild conditions, so it is highly expected in biomass fractionation to improve the utilization efficiency. In this study, we investigated the effect of p-TsOH differentiated fractionation of poplar sawdust, eucalyptus sawdust, and rice straw below 100 °C. According to the experimental results, upon pretreatment by p-TsOH of the three kinds of raw biomass, most of the lignin and hemicellulose of poplar sawdust and eucalyptus sawdust were removed, whereas the cellulose was retained, but most of the hemicellulose and cellulose of rice straw were kept, whereas the lignin was removed at similar conditions. The structures and compositions of pretreatment residues, lignin, and hemicellulose extracted from raw biomass were characterized by XRD, FTIR, HSQC-NMR, XPS, and SEM. The differentiated fractionation mechanism of biomass was analyzed. A better recognition and understanding of the factors affecting biomatrix opening and fractionation will allow for the identification of new pretreatment strategies that improve biomass utilization and permit the rational enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose.