Kinetics of enzyme-catalyzed hydrolysis of steam-exploded sugarcane bagasse

This work presents the experimental kinetic data and the fractal modeling of sugarcane bagasse steam treatment and enzymatic hydrolysis. Sugarcane bagasse (50 wt% moisture) was pretreated by autohydrolysis at 210 °C for 4 min. Acid catalysis involved the use of 9.5 mg g−1 of H2SO4 or H3PO4 in relation to the substrate dry mass at these same pretreatment conditions. Unwashed, water-washed and alkali-washed substrates were hydrolyzed at 2.0 wt% using 8 and 15 FPU g−1 (108.22 and 199.54 mg/g) total solids of a Celluclast 1.5 L and Novozym 188 mixture (Novozymes). The fractal kinetic modeling was used to describe the effect of pretreatment and both washing processes on substrate accessibility. Water and/or alkali washing was not strictly necessary to achieve high hydrolysis efficiencies. Also, the fractal model coefficients revealed that H3PO4 was a better pretreatment catalyst under the experimental conditions used in this study, resulting in the most susceptible substrates for enzymatic hydrolysis.