Reducing biomass recalcitrance via mild sodium carbonate pretreatment

•Sodium carbonate was used for pretreating biomass under a mild condition.•Three feedstocks were tested, including corn stover, Miscanthus, and switchgrass.•The pretreatment substantially removed lignin while keeping most of cellulose.•The pretreatment increased the cellulose digestibility by 1–3 times.•Pretreated corn stover gave the highest glucose yield of 95.1%.

This study examined the effects of mild sodium carbonate (Na2CO3) pretreatment on enzymatic hydrolysis of different feedstocks (i.e., corn stover, Miscanthus, and switchgrass). The results showed that sodium carbonate pretreatment markedly enhanced the sugar yields of the tested biomass feedstocks. The pretreated corn stover, Miscanthus, and switchgrass gave the glucose yields of 95.1%, 62.3%, and 81.3%, respectively, after enzymatic hydrolysis. The above glucose yields of pretreated feedstocks were 2–4 times that of untreated ones. The pretreatment also enhanced the xylose yields, 4 times for corn stover and 20 times for both Miscanthus and switchgrass. Sodium carbonate pretreatment removed 40–59% lignin from the tested feedstocks while preserving most of cellulose (<5% cellulose loss). Corn stover appeared to be least resistant to breakdown by Na2CO3 and enzymatic hydrolysis. Our study indicated that mild sodium carbonate pretreatment was effective for reducing biomass recalcitrance and subsequently improving the digestibility of lignocellulosic biomass.