Pretreatment corn ingredient biomass with high pressure CO2 for conversion to fermentable sugars via enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose.

Economical and eco-friendly lignocellulose pretreatment technology, and enzymatic sugar production are an urgent demands for fermentation into valuable platform chemicals. In this work, we explored that pretreatment of corn cobs and corn stalks based on scCO 2 at pressure (35–45 MPa), temperature (40 ℃−70 ℃) and moisture content (0 wt% − 85 wt%), time (1–24 h), and in term of pretreatment effect to investigate the enzymatic hydrolysis yield. The pressurized biphasic system of CO 2 -H 2 O generates carbonic acid in situ to promote the hydrolysis of biomass, and the drastic release of enclosed static scCO 2 creates irreversible structural fragmentation for the two raw materials, as supported by various characterization techniques. Additionally, comparing the divergences in sugar yield and pretreatment mechanism between the two raw materials was due to the dominant tissue structure. Whilst trade-off high CO 2 pressure and mild pretreatment temperature could achieve high enzyme digestibility compared to the untreated biomass.' [Display omitted] • Pretreated corn ingredients with high pressure CO 2 (35–45 MPa). • Hemicellulose components were effectively removed. • Significantly enhance sugar yield compared to untreated raw materials. • Pretreatment temperature was mild (50 ℃ or 60 ℃) and time was short (1 h or 4 h). • Moisture plays an important role in generating carbonic acid in situ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]