The effect of organosolv pretreatment on the enzymatic hydrolysis of poplar.

The use of alcohol/water/catalyst mixtures to delignify wood allows the lignin to be recovered in a usable form while leaving the carbohydrate fraction relatively intact. The effects of temperature, reaction time, and the type of solvent and catalyst on the delignification of milled poplar wood were investigated. The lignin, cellulose, and hemicellulose composition of the pretreated material was measured for each treatment condition. In addition, the pretreated samples were subjected to enzymatic hydrolysis using the cellulases produced by the thermophilic bacterium Thermomonospora sp. YX. The extent of enzymatic hydrolysis was characterized using an empirical model, and the results were used to examine the effectiveness of the pretreatment.