Formic acid reinforced autohydrolysis of wheat straw for high yield production of monosugars and minimal lignin precipitation

Abstract Wheat straw was pretreated at 150 °C for 100 min at a liquor-to-straw ratio of 6 L/kg (oven dry basis) straw using aqueous formic acid (FA) concentrations ranging from 0 to 15 g/L. The results showed excellent sugar and lignin mass balances for pretreatment, and precipitated lignin in the hydrolysate obtained at 15 g/L of FA decreased to 0.31 g/100 g straw compared to autohydrolysis (no FA) of 0.94 g/100 g straw. The average molecular weight of precipitated lignin decreased from 1970 g/mole for autohydrolysis to 710 g/mole at 15 g/L of FA. The monomeric sugar yield during pretreatment improved from 3.83 g/100 g for autohydrolysis to 23.5 g/100 g at 15 g/L FA.