Multifactorial effects of gluconic acid pretreatment of waste straws on enzymatic hydrolysis performance.

The chemical compositions of lignin, hemicellulose and cellulose are so far unascertained to various lignocellulose in respect to effect of cellulose enzymatic hydrolysis. The novel and environment-friendly gluconic acid (GA) pretreatment technology showed impressive results on the enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose in various agricultural straws. However, only few of the main reasons or critical issues pertaining to this reaction are known. Therefore, the novel GA pretreatment was carried out to remove hemicellulose from the three representative waste straws under different conditions. Next, for the enzymatic hydrolysis of the residual cellulose fraction in the pretreated straws, some mathematical correlations have been investigated between enzyme accessibility, hemicellulose removal rate, and cellulose crystallinity index. Both linear and nonlinear models were compared using five-parameter logic curve, four-parameter logic curve, and Deming regression. Hemicellulose removal was logically ascribed to be the trigger for cellulose saccharification efficiency during GA pretreatment of these waste straws.