AUTHOR=Li Man , Liu Zhi-Hua , Hao Naijia , Olson Michelle L. , Li Qiang , Bhagia Samarthya , Shinde Somnath , Kao Katy C. , Ragauskas Arthur J. , Xie Shangxian , Yuan Joshua S. 

TITLE=Synergistic Improvement of Carbohydrate and Lignin Processability by Biomimicking Biomass Processing

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Energy Research

VOLUME=Volume 8 - 2020

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/energy-research/articles/10.3389/fenrg.2020.00194

DOI=10.3389/fenrg.2020.00194

ISSN=2296-598X

ABSTRACT=The sustainability and economic feasibility of modern biorefinery depends on the efficient processing of both carbohydrate and lignin streams for value-added products. By mimicking the biomass degradation process in white-rote fungi, a tailored two-step fractionation process was developed to maximize the sugar release from switchgrass biomass and to optimize the lignin processability for bioconversion. This process was named as F2O (Formic Acid: Fenton:Organosolv) and achieved high processability for both carbohydrate and lignin. Specifically, switchgrass pretreated by F2O process had a 99.6% of the theoretical yield cellulose release. The fractionated lignin was also readily processable by fermentation via Rhodococcus opacus PD630 with a lipid yield of 1.16g/L. SEM analysis confirmed the fragmentation of switchgrass fiber and the cell wall deconstruction. 2D-HSQC NMR further revealed cleavage of aryl ether linkages (β-O-4) in lignin components. These results revealed the mechanisms for the efficient sugar release and lignin bioconversion. F2O process demonstrated effective mimicking of natural biomass utilization system and paved a new path for co-optimization of lignin and carbohydrate processability in next generation lignocellulosic biorefinery.