Recalcitrance of Pelleted Corn Stover to Enzymatic Digestion

The potential of lignocellulose for producing fermentable sugars as feedstock to manufacture fuels, chemicals, and materials for decarbonization remains untapped due to costly logistics and conversion processes. Pelleting technology offers a solution by addressing logistical issues and impacting downstream conversion, though it comes with its own costs. An overview of recent advances in pelleting technologies and their impact on bioconversion highlights the importance of understanding variables and product attributes. The interplay between pelleting and pretreatment processes, considering various feedstocks, is crucial for future design. Practical considerations such as energy consumption, costs, and environmental impacts must not be overlooked, along with exploration of cutting-edge technologies and strategies in this field. This work further presents a comprehensive investigation into the recalcitrance of pelleted corn stover to enzymatic digestion prior to any pretreatment.The potential of lignocellulose for producing fermentable sugars as feedstock to manufacture fuels, chemicals, and materials for decarbonization remains untapped due to costly logistics and conversion processes. Pelleting technology offers a solution by addressing logistical issues and impacting downstream conversion, though it comes with its own costs. An overview of recent advances in pelleting technologies and their impact on bioconversion highlights the importance of understanding variables and product attributes. The interplay between pelleting and pretreatment processes, considering various feedstocks, is crucial for future design. Practical considerations such as energy consumption, costs, and environmental impacts must not be overlooked, along with exploration of cutting-edge technologies and strategies in this field.This dissertation further presents a comprehensive investigation into the recalcitrance of pelleted corn stover to enzymatic digestion prior to any pretreatment. One aspect focuses on the role of high moisture pelleting in enhancing the enzymatic digestibility of corn stover before pretreatment, along with the relevant substrate characteristics. The pelleting process increases the digestibility of unpretreated corn stover, resulting in a glucan conversion increase from 8.2% to 15.5% at a 5% solid loading using 1 FPU Cellic® CTec2 per gram of solids. Under the same enzymatic hydrolysis conditions, the conversion of glucan remains higher for pelleted corn stover compared to its non-pelleted counterpart, even though both samples underwent identical milling processes and passed through the same screen to minimize particle impact. Compositional analysis reveals that loose and pelleted corn stover have similar non-dissolvable compositions, albeit with differences in their extractives. Using microcrystalline cellulose (Avicel) as a substrate, the presence of corn stover extractives results in a lower sugar yield compared to using citrate buffer instead, particularly for extractives from pelleted corn stover. This indicates a more negative impact of pelleted corn stover extractives on the activity of employed enzyme, CTec2. However, pelleted corn stover still shows increased overall glucan conversion compared to loose corn stover, suggesting improved digestibility of non-dissolvable components after milling and washing. The improvement in digestibility of pelleted material can be attributed to factors such as reduced particle size, enhanced substrate accessibility, and hydrolysis of cross-linking structures induced by the pelleting process. These findings offer valuable insights for the development of processing strategies aimed at sustainable and efficient utilization of lignocellulose