(710b) Measurement and Evaluation of Recalcitrance Changes for Organic Solvent Pretreatment Methods

Biomass recalcitrance is largely responsible for the high cost of chemical and fuel production from lignocellulose. To enhance biodegradation for these applications, it is crucial to determine how a pretreatment method affects the physical characteristics of lignocellulose^1,2. In this work, we show the efficacy of Direct Yellow 11 as a probe to measure the cellulosic accessibility to cellulase enzymes. Together with crystallinity and delignification measurements, this accessibility measurement technique provides insight into recalcitrance changes that enhance biomass susceptibility towards enzymatic conversion to glucose^2,3. Here we elucidate how a variety of organic solvents affect the key physical characteristics of biomass. These physical characteristic changes provide an increased understanding of biomass recalcitrance and its effect on cellulase kinetics.

1. Chandra, R., et al. (2008). "The characterization of pretreated lignocellulosic substrates prior to enzymatic hydrolysis, part 1: a modified Simons' staining technique." Biotechnology progress 24(5): 1178-1185.
2. Kang, Y. et al. (2013). "SO2�catalyzed steam explosion: The effects of different severity on digestibility, accessibility, and crystallinity of lignocellulosic biomass." Biotechnology progress 29.4: 909-916.
3. Hall, M. et al. (2010). "Cellulose crystallinityâ??a key predictor of the enzymatic hydrolysis rate." FEBS journal 277.6: 1571-1582.