Solid Acid Pretreatment Enhancing the Production of VFAs from Corn Cob

Volatile fatty acids (VFAs) are products with high added value and widely used. The production of organic acids by anaerobic fermentation of biomass is an environmentally friendly method and can realize the recycling of waste. In order to solve the problem that biomass structure is complex and difficult to hydrolyze, three pretreatment methods, solid acid, dilute sulfuric acid and hydrothermal treatment, were used to pretreat corncob. The effects of three pretreatment methods on acid production of corncob by anaerobic fermentation were compared. The results showed that after 16 days of fermentation, the concentration of VFAs of solid acid pretreatment group was significantly higher than that of other experimental groups, reaching 4055.15 mg/L, which was 41.34% higher than that of control group. The results showed that solid acid pretreatment can effectively destroy the structure of corncob, promoted its hydrolysis and increase the acid production of anaerobic fermentation. Solid acid pretreatment with the advantages of environmentally friendly, high efficiency and low cost is a promising process for biomass acid production, which promotes the production of VFAs by biomass fermentation.