Cellulose solvent- and organic solvent-based lignocellulose fractionation enabled efficient sugar release from a variety of lignocellulosic feedstocks

Developing feedstock-independent biomass pretreatment would be vital to second generation biorefineries that would fully utilize diverse non-food lignocellulosic biomass resources, decrease transportation costs of low energy density feedstock, and conserve natural biodiversity. Cellulose solvent- and organic solvent-based lignocellulose fractionation (COSLIF) was applied to a variety of feedstocks, including Miscanthus, poplar, their mixture, bagasse, wheat straw, and rice straw. Although non-pretreated biomass samples exhibited a large variation in enzymatic digestibility, the COSLIF-pretreated biomass samples exhibited similar high enzymatic glucan digestibilities and fast hydrolysis rates. Glucan digestibilities of most pretreated feedstocks were ∼93% at five filter paper units per gram of glucan. The overall glucose and xylose yields for the Miscanthus:poplar mixture at a weight ratio of 1:2 were 93% and 85%, respectively. These results suggested that COSLIF could be regarded as a feedstock-independent pretreatment suitable for processing diverse feedstocks by adjusting pretreatment residence time only.

► COSLIF can effectively pretreat numerous feedstocks.
► Glucan digestibilities of most feedstocks were ∼93% at a low cellulase loading.
► COSLIF could be regarded as feedstock-independent biomass pretreatment.
► Feedstock-independent fractionation would be vital to success of biorefineries.