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Evaluation of alkali and cellulose solvent pretreatments for fermentable sugar production from the biomass of Phragmites karka (Retz.) Trin. ex Steud.: a high biomass producing grass

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Abstract

Phragmites karka is one of the fast growing halophytes known to accumulate high biomass in a short span of time. In this study, we evaluated the potential of P. karka biomass from the Chilika Lagoon of India for the production of glucose which can possibly be converted into ethanol. Compositional analysis of biomass of P. karka was carried out and it was found that the biomass contained 33.12% cellulose, 28.17% hemicellulose and 24.81% lignin. For saccharification, the biomass were pretreated with two different pretreatments such as, cellulose solvent -and organic-solvent based lignocellulosic fractionation (COSLIF) and alkali (NaOH). Both of the pretreated biomass were digested with various dosages of cellulase and β-glucosidase enzymes. The enzymatic hydrolysis revealed that COSLIF using 85% phosphoric acid at a solid loading of 1 g biomass to 8 ml acid for 45 min at 50 °C exhibited the best result in terms of glucose release. Cellulase enzyme mixture containing 1 FPU cellulase and 10 IU β-glucosidase was found efficient in releasing 86.16% of glucose from the COSLIF pretreated biomass, whereas with the use of higher dosages of enzyme mixture (60 FPU cellulase and 60 IU β-glucosidase) alkali pretreated biomass could release only 72.65% glucose. The findings in this study addressed the potential use of P. karka as a source of biomass for the second generation ethanol production.

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Abbreviations

COSLIF:

Cellulose solvent- and organic solvent lignocellulose fractionation

FPU:

Filter paper unit

IU:

International units

AIL:

Acid-insoluble lignin

ASL:

Acid-soluble lignin

FT-IR:

Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the Forest & Environment Department, Govt. of Odisha for financial support.

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Author notes

  1. Debabrata Dash and Nitesh K. Mund contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Regional Plant Resource Centre, Nayapalli, Bhubaneswar, 751015, Odisha, India

    Debabrata Dash, Nitesh K. Mund & Nihar R. Nayak

  2. Biomass Energy Center for Arid Lands, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, 712100, Shaanxi, China

    Nitesh K. Mund

  3. College of Life Sciences, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, 712100, Shaanxi, China

    Nitesh K. Mund

  4. School of Sustainability, Xavier University, Plot No:12(A), Harirajpur, Puri, 752050, Odisha, India

    Deepanshu Upadhyay

  5. Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology, Bhubaneswar, 751003, Odisha, India

    Prasannajit Mishra & Sashi Kanta Dash

Authors
  1. Debabrata Dash
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Contributions

DD: Methodology, Investigation, Visualization. NKM: Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, Writing-Original draft. DU: Investigation PM: Feedstock collection, Statistical analysis. SD: Investigation NRN: Conceptualization, Validation, Writing-Review & Editing, Supervision, Funding acquisition.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nihar R. Nayak.

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Highlights

• An alternative bioenergy feedstock P. karka has been identified to be used for second generation biofuel generation.

• P. karka was found to produced substantial amount of dry biomass, which can reach up to 46 t h−1.

• COSLIF and NaOH pretreatment efficiently released glucose from the biomass.

• Theoretical ethanol yield was estimated to be 51325 kl from the P. karka biomass.

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Dash, D., Mund, N.K., Upadhyay, D. et al. Evaluation of alkali and cellulose solvent pretreatments for fermentable sugar production from the biomass of Phragmites karka (Retz.) Trin. ex Steud.: a high biomass producing grass. Biomass Conv. Bioref. 13, 7725–7736 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13399-021-01730-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13399-021-01730-4

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