Galactoglucomannan (GGM) from spruce was studied with respect to the degradation behavior in alkaline solution. Three reference systems including galactomannan from locust bean gum, glucomannan from konjac and the linear water-soluble carboxymethyl cellulose were studied with focus on molecular weight, sugar composition, degradation products, as well as formed oligomers, to identify relative structural changes in GGM. Initially all mannan polysaccharides showed a fast decrease in the molecular weight, which became stable in the later stage. The degradation of the mannan polysaccharides could be described by a function corresponding to the sum of two first order reactions; one slow that was ascribed to peeling, and one fast that was connected with hydrolysis. The galactose side group was stable under conditions used in this study (150 min, 90°C, 0.5 M NaOH). This could suggest that, apart from the covalent connection to C6 in mannose, the galactose substitutions also interact non-covalently with the backbone to stabilize the structure against degradation. Additionally, the combination of different backbone sugars seems to affect the stability of the polysaccharides. For carboxymethyl cellulose the degradation was linear over time which further suggests that the structure and sugar composition play an important role for the alkaline degradation. Molecular dynamics simulations gave details about the conformational behavior of GGM oligomers in water solution, as well as interaction between the oligomers and hydroxide ions.

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Autohydrolysis, an economical pre-treatment, allows for dissolution and chemical modification of wood chips.

PreprintThis is the submitted version of a paper published in Journal of wood chemistry and technology. Citation for the original published paper (version of record):Wang, Y., Azhar, S., Lindström, M., Henriksson, G. (2015) Stabilisation of polysaccharides during alkaline pretreatment of wood combined with enzymesupported extractions in a biorefinery. However, some of the hemicelluloses, primarily glucomannan, and lignin were lost during the impregnation. To improve the carbohydrate yield, three glucomannan modification agents: sodium borohydride, polysulphide and anthraquinone, were used, which increased the yields of the impregnated materials from 76.6% to 89.6%, 81.3% and 80.0%, respectively. Through the use of additives, most of the glucomannan could be retained in the wood while still allowing the enzymes to penetrate the wood and attack the polymers. The additives also increased the extraction yield from 9 to 12% w/w wood. Gamanase treatment prior to the extraction increased the extraction yield to 14%. Of the three stabilising agents, sodium borohydride was the most efficient, providing the highest extraction yields. Journal

Plant mannanases are enzymes that carry out fundamentally important functions in cell wall metabolism during plant growth and development by digesting manno-polysaccharides. In this work, the Arabidopsis mannanase 5-2 (AtMan5-2) from a previously uncharacterized subclade of glycoside hydrolase family 5 subfamily 7 (GH5_7) has been heterologously produced in Pichia pastoris. Purified recombinant AtMan5-2 is a glycosylated protein with an apparent molecular mass of 50kDa, a pH optimum of 5.5-6.0 and a temperature optimum of 25°C. The enzyme exhibits high substrate affinity and catalytic efficiency on mannan substrates with main chains containing both glucose and mannose units such as konjac glucomannan and spruce galactoglucomannan. Product analysis of manno-oligosaccharide hydrolysis shows that AtMan5-2 requires at least six substrate-binding subsites. No transglycosylation activity for the recombinant enzyme was detected in the present study. Our results demonstrate diversification of catalytic function among members in the Arabidopsis GH5_7 subfamily.

Purification is critical in any chemical process. The removal of impurities will produce the product in better quality and high standard. In this study, a new type of monomer was prepared by condensation polymerization of alkali lignin (AL) and methacryloyl chloride (MAC). The effect of AL/MAC ratio and the purification of MAC were investigated. The physical and chemical properties of the product obtained which is lignin methacrylate (LMA) were characterized by Fourier Transformed Infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (1H-NMR). The result reveals that the purification was successfully removed the hydroxyl groups from the stabilizer in MAC and it is found that all the hydroxyl groups are coming from AL. The single interaction between AL and MAC has successfully enhanced the product obtain which does show no hydroxyl groups. The 1H-NMR data also showed that the purification of MAC influences the outcome. The noise and impurities were eliminated after the purification of MAC, and more pure products were obtained. This new monomer (LMA) synthesis that can be further utilized for various applications.

Several different methods for the extraction, separation, and purification of wood constituents were combined in this work as a unified process with the purpose of achieving a high overall efficiency of material extraction and utilization. This study aimed to present a laboratory-scale demonstrator biorefinery that illustrated how the different wood constituents could be separated from the wood matrix for later use in the production of new bio-based materials and chemicals by combining several approaches. This study builds on several publications and ongoing activities within the Wallenberg Wood Science Center (WWSC) in Sweden on the theme “From wood to material components.” Combining the approaches developed in these WWSC projects – including mild steam explosion, membrane and chromatographic separation, enzymatic treatment and leaching, ionic liquid extraction, and fractionation together with Kraft pulping – formed an outline for a complete materials-biorefinery. The process steps involved were tested as integral steps in a linked process. The scale of operations ranged from the kilogram-scale to the gram-scale. The feasibility and efficiency of these process steps in a biorefinery system were assessed, based on the data, beginning with whole wood.

In a biorefinery context it is an advantage to fractionate and extract different wood components in a relatively pure form. However, one major obstacle for efficient extraction of wood polymers (lignin, polysaccharides etc.) is the covalent lignin-polysaccharide networks present in lignified cell walls. Enzymatic catalysis might be a useful tool for a controlled degradation of these networks, thereby enhancing the extraction of high molecular weight polymers. In this work, a methanol-alkali mixture was used to extract two different wood samples treated with endoxylanase and gammanase, respectively. Wood chips were pretreated with alkali prior to enzymatic treatment to enhance the cell-wall accessibility to enzymes. Extractions were also carried out on non-enzyme-treated samples to evaluate the enzymatic effects. Results showed that the enzymatic treatment increased the extraction yield, with gammanase as the more efficient of the two enzymes. Furthermore, polymers extracted from xylanase-treated wood had a higher degree of polymerization than the reference.