Factors affecting seawater-based pretreatment of lignocellulosic date palm residues

Chuanji Fang; Mette Hedegaard Thomsen; Christian Grundahl Frankær; Juan-Rodrigo Bastidas-Oyanedel; Grzegorz P Brudecki; Jens Ejbye Schmidt

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2017.08.184

Factors affecting seawater-based pretreatment of lignocellulosic date palm residues

Bioresour Technol. 2017 Dec;245(Pt A):540-548. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2017.08.184. Epub 2017 Sep 1.

Authors

Chuanji Fang¹, Mette Hedegaard Thomsen², Christian Grundahl Frankær³, Juan-Rodrigo Bastidas-Oyanedel⁴, Grzegorz P Brudecki¹, Jens Ejbye Schmidt⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, Masdar Institute, Masdar City, P.O. Box 54224, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
² Department of Energy Technology, Aalborg University, Niels Bohrsvej 8, DK-6700 Esbjerg, Denmark.
³ Department of Chemistry, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 5, 2100 København Ø, Denmark.
⁴ Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, Masdar Institute, Masdar City, P.O. Box 54224, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Electronic address: jbastidas@masdar.ac.ae.
⁵ Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, Masdar Institute, Masdar City, P.O. Box 54224, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Electronic address: jschmidt@masdar.ac.ae.

PMID: 28898854
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2017.08.184

Abstract

Seawater-based pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass is an innovative process at research stage. With respect to process optimization, factors affecting seawater-based pretreatment of lignocellulosic date palm residues were studied for the first time in this paper. Pretreatment temperature (180°C-210°C), salinity of seawater (0ppt-50ppt), and catalysts (H₂SO₄, Na₂CO₃, and NaOH) were investigated. The results showed that pretreatment temperature exerted the largest influence on seawater-based pretreatment in terms of the enzymatic digestibility and fermentability of pretreated solids, and the inhibition of pretreatment liquids to Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Salinity showed the least impact to seawater-based pretreatment, which widens the application spectrum of saline water sources such as brines discharged in desalination plant. Sulfuric acid was the most effective catalyst for seawater-based pretreatment compared with Na₂CO₃ and NaOH.

Keywords: Biorefinery; Date palm residues; Lignocellulosic biomass; Pretreatment; Seawater.

MeSH terms

Biomass
Hydrolysis
Phoeniceae
Saccharomyces cerevisiae*
Seawater*