Statistical analysis of glucose production from Eucalyptus pellita with individual control of chemical constituents

Abstract To understand the effects of the biomass constituents for enzymatic hydrolysis, a tropical hardwood, Eucalyptus pellita, was employed to change the content of chemical constituents and regression assessment was progressed. The liquid hot water and acid-chlorite pretreatment controlled hemicellulose and lignin removal rate from 3.1 to 91.7% and from 4.4 to 99.1%, respectively. Total lignin in E. pellita (34.8%) was obviously reduced up to 9.0% under 4 g of sodium chlorite and 0.8 mL of acetic acid with 3 times loading. In this case, acid-insoluble lignin (2.4%) was entirely eliminated compared with that of E. pellita (29.0%), whereas acid-soluble lignin (6.6%) was preferably increased compared with of E. pellita (2.3%). The maximum glucose yield (87.5%) after the combined pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis were dramatically improved compared with that of liquid hot water pretreatment alone (28.2%). Meanwhile, a high glucose yield (83.9%) could also be obtained by acid-chlorite pretreatment alone. The adjusted R-squared value of hemicellulose and lignin removal rate (0.9285) and lignin removal rate alone (0.9063) with glucose yield was determined by linear regression analysis.