Enzymatic saccharification of Eucalyptus bark using hydrothermal pre-treatment with carbon dioxide

In this study, saccharification of the inner bark of Eucalyptus was carried out by enzymatic hydrolysis to produce bioethanol from non-food biomass. To enhance the accessibility of the enzyme to the polysaccharides such as cellulose and holocellulose in the cell wall of the bark, the bark was subjected to hydrothermal pre-treatment with carbon dioxide. This pre-treatment considerably influenced enzymatic hydrolysis. The main component (over 90%) of the generated monosaccharide was glucose, and the yield of glucose on the basis of α-cellulose reaches about 80%. This result suggests that the secondary wall, whose main component is cellulose, was effectively hydrolyzed by the enzyme. Microscopic analysis revealed that after pre-treatment, the phloem parenchyma cell had a considerably swollen primary wall and the phloem fibre showed many nano-clefts within its secondary wall. These structural changes appeared to promote enzymatic hydrolysis, because of high accessibility of enzymes to cellulose in the secondary wall.