The impact of pretreatments on cellulose from sugar beet shreds and its susceptibility to enzymatic hydrolysis

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of dilute acid and steam pretreatment on cellulose from sugar beet shreds and its susceptibility to enzymatic hydrolysis. The applied pretreatments allowed more than 50% material recovery and more than 90% cellulose recovery. In comparison with the untreated material, dilute acid and steam pretreatment reduced the total crystallinity index of cellulose by 2.2 and 3 times, respectively, while the reduction in the lateral order index was similar and amounted to approximately 4 times. The materials ability to retain water was increased upon the treatments and was more pronounced for the steam pretreated sample. The pretreatments did not considerably change the affinity of cellulases towards cellulose, while changes induced by the applied pretreatments allowed adsorbed enzymes to hydrolyze cellulose efficiently. Cellulose conversion ratio obtained during the hydrolysis of dilute and steam pretreated sugar beet shreds was 378.9 mg/g and 436.3 mg/g, respectively, which was approximately twice higher in comparison with that achieved with the untreated substrate.