Rugulopteryx okamurae: Effect of hydrothermal acid pretreatment on the saccharification process

Agustín Romero-Vargas; Luis Alberto Fdez-Güelfo; Ana Blandino; Manuel J Díaz; Ana Belén Díaz

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2023.129721

Rugulopteryx okamurae: Effect of hydrothermal acid pretreatment on the saccharification process

Bioresour Technol. 2023 Nov:388:129721. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2023.129721. Epub 2023 Sep 18.

Authors

Agustín Romero-Vargas¹, Luis Alberto Fdez-Güelfo², Ana Blandino³, Manuel J Díaz⁴, Ana Belén Díaz⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical Engineering and Food Technology, Wine and Agrifood Research Institute (IVAGRO), University of Cádiz - International Campus of Excellence (ceiA3), 11510 Puerto Real, Cádiz, Spain. Electronic address: agustin.romero@uca.es.
² Department of Environmental Technologies, Faculty of Marine and Environmental Sciences, University of Cádiz - International Campus of Excellence (ceiA3), 11510 Puerto Real, Cádiz, Spain. Electronic address: alberto.fdezguelfo@uca.es.
³ Department of Chemical Engineering and Food Technology, Wine and Agrifood Research Institute (IVAGRO), University of Cádiz - International Campus of Excellence (ceiA3), 11510 Puerto Real, Cádiz, Spain. Electronic address: ana.blandino@uca.es.
⁴ Department of Chemical Engineering and Food Technology, Wine and Agrifood Research Institute (IVAGRO), University of Cádiz - International Campus of Excellence (ceiA3), 11510 Puerto Real, Cádiz, Spain. Electronic address: manueljesus.diaz@uca.es.
⁵ Department of Chemical Engineering and Food Technology, Wine and Agrifood Research Institute (IVAGRO), University of Cádiz - International Campus of Excellence (ceiA3), 11510 Puerto Real, Cádiz, Spain. Electronic address: anabelen.diaz@uca.es.

PMID: 37730140
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2023.129721

Abstract

The biological invasion caused by the invasive macroalga Rugulopteryx okamurae is causing increasing concern in southern Europe. To reduce its impact, this brown alga can be treated from a biorefinery approach. In this study, the macroalga is used as raw material to obtain fermentable sugars, which can be converted into high value-added products. The alga was exposed to hydrothermal and hydrothermal acid pretreatment and the pretreated biomass was used for enzymatic hydrolysis, achieving a hydrolysate with a reducing sugar concentration of almost 25 g/L (49.2% more than with non-pretreated alga). In addition, the combined severity factor was calculated to identify the best pretreatment conditions, finding the optimum in those pretreatments performed with 0.2 N HCl concentration and 15 min reaction time. Based on the results, it would be interesting to carry out new studies using the saccharified medium obtained under optimal conditions to obtain value-added compounds by fermentation.

Keywords: Combined severity factor; Dietary fibre; Enzyme hydrolysis; Macroalga; Reducing sugar.