Developing a fundamental understanding of biomass structural features responsible for enzymatic digestibility
Conference Paper
Overview
Overview
abstract
Lignocellulosic biomass is one of the most valuable alternative energy sources. Overcoming limitations to thoroughly hydrolyze biomass with enzymes has been the main focus of research over the last 3 decades. Auburn University and Michigan State University conducted a study on the hydrolysis mechanisms on a fundamental level. A simplified form of a theoretical model of cellulose hydrolysis, the HCH-1 Model, was used to model enzymatic hydrolysis. Crystallinity index, lignin content, and acetyl content were investigated as the major factors influencing enzymatic hydrolysis. Poplar wood model samples were prepared with a variety of lignin contents, acetyl contents, and crystallinities. The neural network toolbox in MATLAB and SAS were used to develop nonparametric and parametric empirical models, respectively, to predict enzymatic digestibility. The models were tested to determine if they could predict A and B and ultimately enzymatic reactivity of biomass samples pretreated via aqueous ammonia, FIBEX, lime, neutral water, and dilute acid. The analyses were compared with outputs from the mathematical models to determine if they could predict enzymatic digestibility based solely on acetyl content, lignin content, and crystallinity or determine if there are other structural features that play a major role in the enzymatic hydrolysis of biomass. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the AIChE Annual Meeting (Austin, TX 11/7-12/2004).
