A combined sodium phosphate and sodium sulfide pretreatment for enhanced enzymatic digestibility and delignification...

Na3PO4 and Na2S were employed as efficient alkaline catalysts for the pretreatment of corn stover. To systematically obtain optimal conditions, the effects of critical pretreatment parameters including sodium phosphate concentration (1-4%), sulfidity (0-20%), pretreatment temperature (100-120°C), and reaction time (20-60min) on the reducing sugar yield of pretreated substrates were evaluated in a lab-scale using the response surface methodology. Pretreated under the sodium phosphate concentration of 4%, sulfidity of 10%, temperature of 120°C, and reaction time of 40min, the reducing sugar yield and glucose yield of the pretreated corn stover achieved 91.11% and 64.01%, respectively, with a moderate enzyme loading of 30FPU/g substrate. Additionally, a strong correlation (R(2)=0.971 and R(2)=0.954) between the delignification and the reducing sugar yield (or glucose yield) was observed by this pretreatment method. These results evidently support that the combined Na3PO4-Na2S pretreatment is an effective and feasible method for processing lignocellulosic biomass.