Electron beam pretreatment of switchgrass to enhance enzymatic hydrolysis to produce sugars for biofuels.

Conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to value added products such as ethanol and other platform chemicals is enhanced by pretreatment, which reduces the crystallinity and molecular weight of cell wall polymers, thus increasing the available reaction sites. In this study, switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) was pretreated with high energy electron beam (EB) irradiation to reduce its recalcitrance and achieve higher sugar conversion rates during treatment with cellulases and β-glucosidase. Conversion rates to sugars were compared before and after hot water (HW) extraction of EB-treated and control samples of switchgrass. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) was employed to determine peak degradation temperature of these EB-treated biomass samples before and after HW extraction, and near infrared spectroscopy (NIR) was used as a rapid technique to determine cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin contents in the samples. TGA data confirm previously reported results that EB pretreatment reduces the molecular weight and crystallinity of cellulose and hemicellulose. This leaves hemicellulose more amenable to HW extraction and creates more cellulase-accessible sites, as shown by NIR and glucose yield data, respectively. Hemicellulose content was reduced from 30.2 to 16.9% after HW extraction and 1000 kGy EB treatment, and ultimate glucose yield after cellulase hydrolysis increased more than 4-fold. This study provides evidence that when EB pretreatment is utilized in combination with HW extraction, higher conversion rates and yields of glucose can be obtained from the cellulosic fraction of switchgrass.