Improving the economy of lignocellulose-based biorefineries with organosolv pretreatment

Biorefining Oat Husks into High-Quality Lignin and Enzymatically Digestible Cellulose with Acid-Catalyzed Ethanol Organosolv Pretreatment

“…The research on organosolv pretreatment has been very heterogeneous regarding the range of systems and substrates used, making in-depth knowledge difficult to achieve due to the wide range of results achieved. These were gathered into a review by Ferreira and Taherzadeh [8]. In general terms, the results obtained fit the outputs previously reported; nonetheless, higher glucan purities and consequently delignification yields were reported.…”

“…Organosolv pretreatment performance is influenced by a wide range of parameters, such as temperature, retention time, pH, addition of catalyst, catalyst type and concentration, solvent type and concentration, solid-to-liquid ratio, particle size, and pretreatment vessel design [8]. In this study, temperature, retention time, and S/L ratio were found to impact the delignification of oat husks.…”

“…Exceptions include the works carried out by Matsakas et al [36] using silver birch wood chips, by Patel et al [37] using Norway spruce, and by Yuan et al [38] using corn stover, wherein an S/L ratio of 1:2 was used. Research works in the literature reported lignin-rich fractions containing >90% lignin [8] achieved via different organosolv pretreatment strategies, namely HCl-catalyzed tetrahydro-2-furanmethanol pretreatment of eucalyptus [39], auto-catalyzed ethanol pretreatment of Eucalyptus nitens bark [40], and oxalic acid-catalyzed glycerol pretreatment of sugarcane trash [41]. The research on organosolv pretreatment has been very heterogeneous regarding the range of systems and substrates used, making in-depth knowledge difficult to achieve due to the wide range of results achieved.…”

“…75% and 65% were achieved, respectively, in addition to a high-purity glucan fraction. A review on the use of organosolv pretreatment for the delignification of lignocellulosic materials in the last two years showed that an S/L ratio of 1:10 predominated [8]. Exceptions include the works carried out by Matsakas et al [36] using silver birch wood chips, by Patel et al [37] using Norway spruce, and by Yuan et al [38] using corn stover, wherein an S/L ratio of 1:2 was used.…”

“…Thus, the use of organosolv pretreatment for the delignification of oat-derived lignocellulosic residues is rather unexplored. Furthermore, organosolv studies greatly focused on achieving high purity and highly digestible glucan, pointing out the need for studies regarding the effect of this pretreatment on lignin recovery and purity [8].…”