Enzymatic hydrolysis of biomass from wood

WILEY ONLINE LIBRARY

• First published: 1 February 2016Full publication history
• DOI: 10.1111/1751-7915.12346
• 
  

  1. Previous article in issue: Microbial extracellular electron transfer and its relevance to iron corrosion
  2. Next article in issue: Dynamics of bacterial populations during bench-scale bioremediation of oily seawater and desert soil bioaugmented with coastal microbial mats
  View issue TOC
  Volume 9, Issue 2
  March 2016  
  Pages 149–156
  
  
  Current research and development in cellulosic ethanol production has been focused mainly on agricultural residues and dedicated energy crops such as corn stover and switchgrass; however, woody biomass remains a very important feedstock for ethanol production. The precise composition of hemicellulose in the wood is strongly dependent on the plant species, therefore different types of enzymes are needed based on hemicellulose complexity and type of pretreatment. In general, hardwood species have much lower recalcitrance to enzymes than softwood. For hardwood, xylanases, beta-xylosidases and xyloglucanases are the main hemicellulases involved in degradation of the hemicellulose backbone, while for softwood the effect of mannanases and beta-mannosidases is more relevant. Furthermore, there are different key accessory enzymes involved in removing the hemicellulosic fraction and increasing accessibility of cellulases to the cellulose fibres improving the hydrolysis process. A diversity of enzymatic cocktails has been tested using from low to high densities of biomass (2–20% total solids) and a broad range of results has been obtained. The performance of recently developed commercial cocktails on hardwoods and softwoods will enable a further step for the commercialization of fuel ethanol from wood.

For further details log on website:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1751-7915.12346/abstract