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Understanding physicochemical changes in pretreated and enzyme hydrolysed hemp (Cannabis sativa) biomass for biorefinery development

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Abstract

The physicochemical properties of hemp biomass structure to pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis were investigated to improve upon reducing sugar production for biofuel development. Sodium hydroxide pretreated biomass (SHPB) yielded maximum conversion of holocellulose into reducing sugar (72 %). Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed that enzymatic hydrolysis generated regular micropores in the fragmented biomass structure. The thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) curve suggested the degradation of hemicellulose and cellulose, which conformed well to the subsequent nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) studies indicating the presence of α- and β-glucose (28.4 %) and α- and β-xylose (10.7 %), the major carbohydrate components commonly found in hydrolysis products of hemicellulose and cellulose. Attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectra showed stretching modes of the lignin acetyl group, suggesting the loosening of the polymer matrix and thus the exposure of the cellulose polymorphs. X-ray diffraction pattern indicated that enzymatic hydrolysis caused a higher crystallinity index (36.71), due to the fragmentation of amorphous cellulose leading to the reducing sugar production suitable for biofuel development.

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Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the Centre for Chemistry and Biotechnology (CCB) at Deakin University (Australia) for providing financial support to pursue the research on biofuels. The authors are also thankful to Electron Microscopy (EM) facility at the Institute for Frontier Materials (IFM; Deakin University, Australia) for the acquisition of the SEM data. The authors acknowledge Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) facility at Deakin University and Ms. Gail Dyson for helping in conducting the experiment and analysing the data.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Chemistry and Biotechnology (CCB), School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University, Waurn Ponds, Geelong, VIC, 3216, Australia

    Reinu E Abraham, Colin J Barrow & Munish Puri

  2. Australian Synchrotron, 800 Blackburn Road, Clayton, VIC, 3168, Australia

    Jitraporn Vongsvivut

  3. Bioprocessing Laboratory, CCB, Deakin University, Geelong, VIC, 3217, Australia

    Munish Puri

Authors
  1. Reinu E Abraham
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  2. Jitraporn Vongsvivut
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  3. Colin J Barrow
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  4. Munish Puri
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Correspondence to Munish Puri.

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Research highlights

• Hemp hurd biomass was pretreated by sodium hydroxide and enzyme hydrolysis

• Enzyme hydrolysed hemp hurd structure resulted in higher crystallinity index (36.71) than untreated (10.35).

• TGA results suggest the presence of mainly hemicellulose and cellulose in biomass.

• Occurrence of tracheids after pretreatment of biomass enhanced the enzyme digestibility.

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Abraham, R.E., Vongsvivut, J., Barrow, C.J. et al. Understanding physicochemical changes in pretreated and enzyme hydrolysed hemp (Cannabis sativa) biomass for biorefinery development. Biomass Conv. Bioref. 6, 127–138 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13399-015-0168-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13399-015-0168-4

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