Lignocellulose pretreatment method using biodegradable organic acid catalyst
Technical Field
The invention relates to the field of chemical industry and biological energy, in particular to a zero-wastewater-discharge lignocellulose pretreatment method by using a degradable organic acid catalyst.
Background
Lignocellulose is a widely distributed renewable resource with huge reserves, and can be used for producing various energy sources and products with high added values by a biorefinery technology. The main components of lignocellulose include cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin. The inherent structure of lignocellulose can be broken through an effective pretreatment means, the wrapping of lignin and hemicellulose on the cellulose is eliminated, the contact area of cellulase and the cellulose is increased, and then the subsequent enzymolysis efficiency and the conversion efficiency of biological fermentation can be effectively improved. Effective pretreatment techniques are therefore of great importance for biorefineries that use lignocellulose as a feedstock.
The main lignocellulose pretreatment methods comprise a dilute sulfuric acid method, a sulfur dioxide method, ammonia fiber expansion and explosion and steam expansion and explosion technologies, and the technologies are proved to be capable of effectively breaking the original biological structure of the lignocellulose raw material and improving the subsequent enzymolysis efficiency. Wherein the dilute sulfuric acid method is applied to a part of the industrial demonstration devices of the cellulose ethanol. The conventional dilute sulfuric acid method pretreatment technology is to adopt sulfuric acid as a pretreatment catalyst, mix a dilute sulfuric acid solution with a certain concentration and a lignocellulose raw material in a very high ratio (about 10: 1-20: 1), and maintain a certain reaction time under the conditions of high temperature and high pressure to obtain a pretreated product. However, although the conventional dilute sulfuric acid pretreatment technology can effectively hydrolyze hemicellulose, destroy the crystalline structure of cellulose and partially depolymerize lignin, the following problems still exist in the application process:
due to high corrosivity and high oxidizability, the sulfuric acid has extremely high requirements on the corrosion resistance and safety of equipment in the processes of transportation, storage and use.
Secondly, neutralizing a sulfuric acid catalyst adsorbed by the pretreated material, and finally accumulating calcium salt precipitates generated by using calcium hydroxide as a neutralizing agent in lignin residues; when the lignin residues are used for steam production or power generation incineration, a large amount of sulfur dioxide is discharged;
thirdly, when ammonia water or sodium hydroxide is used for neutralizing the sulfuric acid catalyst adsorbed by the pretreated material, high-concentration ammonium salt or sodium salt can be generated, and the treatment cost of the subsequent process is greatly increased;
and (IV) the conventional dilute sulfuric acid pretreatment process requires extremely large water quantity, the energy consumption for heating and boosting the high water quantity is huge, and the pollution treatment cost is aggravated by subsequent large-amount sewage discharge.
And (V) the use of a large amount of acid solution leads to the solid content of the pretreatment product to be generally lower than 10% (w/w), and the pretreatment product can be recovered for subsequent enzymolysis and microbial fermentation only by solid-liquid separation, thereby increasing the operation and equipment cost.
And (V) various inhibitors for inhibiting subsequent enzymolysis and microbial growth are formed due to excessive degradation in the pretreatment process, and further treatment is needed.
The information disclosed in this background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the general background of the invention and should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art already known to a person skilled in the art.
Disclosure of Invention
In view of the above-mentioned deficiencies of conventional dilute acid pretreatment techniques for lignocellulose, the present invention provides a method for pretreating lignocellulose using a biodegradable organic acid catalyst. On the premise of ensuring the pretreatment strength, the safety of the method is improved, the pollution, the energy consumption and the production cost are reduced, the obtained pretreatment product can be efficiently and simply used for the subsequent high-solid-content biological processing process, the production process is simplified, and the method has great industrial application potential.
In order to achieve the purpose, the invention is realized by the following technical scheme:
a lignocellulose pretreatment method using degradable organic acid catalyst and zero wastewater discharge comprises the following specific steps:
(1) preparing 5-10% (w/v) oxalic acid solution.
(2) The crushed and clean lignocellulose raw material and oxalic acid solution are uniformly stirred in a pretreatment reactor according to a high solid-to-liquid ratio.
The lignocellulosic feedstock includes, but is not limited to, one or more of agricultural wastes such as corn stover, wheat straw, cotton stalks, sesame stalks, canola stalks, sweet sorghum stalks, corn cobs, rice hulls, bagasse, rice straw, wood chips, hardwood, and softwood.
The high solid-liquid ratio is 1:2-3:1, wherein the best effect is achieved when the solid-liquid ratio is 2: 1.
The volume of the pretreatment reactor is 20-50L, the stirring speed is 50-100rpm, and the stirring time is 3-5 min.
(3) Low pressure steam is injected in the pretreatment reactor and maintained for a certain period of time.
The steam pressure of the low-pressure steam sprayed is more than 0.5MPa and less than 1.6MPa, and the steam temperature is more than 158 ℃ and less than 201 ℃. The reaction conditions were kept at 165-195 ℃ for 3-10 min.
In the pretreatment reaction process, the materials completely absorb the acid solution, and no free wastewater is generated.
(4) And (4) continuing to biodegrade the product obtained in the step (3), and biodegrading oxalic acid and an inhibitor generated in the pretreatment process by using a specific microbial strain under the conditions of low pH and no loss of fermentable sugar.
The temperature of the biodegradation process is 28-30 ℃, and the inoculation amount is 10-20%.
The biodegradation process is solid state fermentation, the used bacterial strain can effectively degrade oxalic acid and inhibitor in the acidic environment of the pretreated material, the bacterial strain is Paecilomyces variotii FN89(Paecilomyces variotii FN89), the preservation number is CGMCC No.17665, the preservation date is 5-8 days in 2019, and the preservation address is as follows: xilu No.1 Hospital No. 3, Beijing, Chaoyang, North; the name of the depository: china general microbiological culture Collection center. The fermentation conditions are that the temperature is 28-30 ℃, the ventilation volume is 0.5-1vvm, the stirring is carried out for 3-5min at the rotating speed of 50-100rpm every 12-24h, and the culture time is 48-72 h.
(5) The final material can be directly fed into the subsequent high solid content biological processing process.
The water content of the final material is not more than 60%, the final material is in a dry solid granular shape, and the organic acid catalyst and the inhibitor have no residues.
The high solid content biological processing process comprises all biological refining processes which take lignocellulose pretreated by biodegradable organic acid as a substrate, such as microbial ethanol production, microbial oil production, microbial amino acid production and the like.
In the present invention, the degradable organic acid catalyst used is oxalic acid. Oxalic acid is the simplest dicarboxylic acid and can be prepared from biomass-derived carbohydrates or carbon monoxide as starting materials. The method can be used for pretreating lignocellulose under the condition of extremely high solid content, the pretreated material is in a dry solid granular state, no free wastewater is generated, and the steam energy consumption is extremely low. The pretreated oxalic acid can be completely degraded into carbon dioxide and water by microorganisms. The method not only avoids the subsequent treatment problem of calcium salt precipitate or high-concentration soluble salt generated by the neutralization of the inorganic acid catalyst in the conventional pretreatment technology, but also avoids the discharge of a large amount of wastewater in the conventional pretreatment process.
Compared with the prior dilute acid pretreatment technology, the method has the following beneficial effects:
the safety of transportation, storage and use of the solid oxalic acid is higher;
the acid catalyst does not need to be neutralized, the complete biodegradation of the organic acid catalyst and the inhibitor can be realized under the condition of low pH, and the subsequent enzymolysis and microbial fermentation efficiency is improved; the pollution and the operation flow are reduced;
thirdly, the concentration of sulfur ions in the lignin residues is greatly reduced, and the emission of sulfur dioxide generated after the lignin residues are used for steam generation and power generation incineration is controlled;
fourthly, the extremely high solid-liquid ratio is adopted, so that the water requirement in the pretreatment process is less, the energy consumption required by the heating and boosting operation is reduced, and the zero discharge of free wastewater is realized;
(V) the final material has a water content of no more than 60%, is in a dry solid granular shape, has no residue of an organic acid catalyst and an inhibitor, and can directly enter a high-solid-content biological processing process, so that the production continuity is ensured; simplifies the production process and reduces the production cost.
Detailed Description
The present invention will be described in further detail with reference to examples, but the embodiments of the present invention are not limited to the scope of the examples.
Example 1:
the method for pretreating the wheat straws by using the oxalic acid solid comprises the following steps:
a solution of 33g of oxalic acid solid and 472g of water was added to the pretreatment reactor. 1320g of crushed and dried wheat straw is weighed and added into a pretreatment reactor. The pretreatment reactor was stirred at 50rpm for 5min to ensure adequate mixing of the wheat straw with the oxalic acid solution. The steam valve was opened to maintain the temperature and pressure in the reactor at 175 ℃ and 0.9MPa, respectively, for 5 min. And opening an exhaust valve and taking out the pretreated wheat straws. The wheat straw fully absorbs the oxalic acid solution, and no wastewater is generated in the whole process. The solid content of the obtained pretreated wheat straw is 49.2 percent, and the requirement of subsequent high-solid content biological processing is met. Analysis of the components of the pretreated wheat straw showed that the cellulose retention was 95.6% and the total xylose (including xylose and xylo-oligosaccharide) recovery was 89.7%. The pretreated wheat straw solid is added with 20FPU/gDM cellulose in a system with 5% (w/w) solid content, and is hydrolyzed for 72 hours under the conditions of pH4.8 and 50 ℃, and the final cellulase hydrolysis efficiency is 92.3%. Continuously carrying out solid state fermentation on the pretreated wheat straws, inoculating paecilomyces variotii FN89(CGMCC 17665) culture according to the inoculation amount of 10% (w/w), and culturing for 72h under the conditions of ventilation of 0.6vvm and the temperature of 28 ℃ to obtain the lignocellulose product without the acid catalyst and the inhibitor. The fermentation liquor is then used for bioethanol fermentation, and the ethanol yield in the final fermentation liquor can reach 78.51g/L at the solid content of 30%. The concentration of sulfur ions in the ethanol fermentation lignin residue is detected to be 2.6g/kg by using inductively coupled plasma chromatography, and is about 1/6 of the concentration of the sulfuric acid pretreatment.
Example 2:
the method for pretreating wheat straws by using solid oxalic acid comprises the following steps:
a solution of 45 oxalic acid solids and 590g of water was used and charged to the pretreatment reactor. 1250g of crushed and dried wheat straw is weighed and added into the pretreatment reactor. The pretreatment reactor was stirred at 50rpm for 3min to ensure adequate mixing of the wheat straw with the oxalic acid solution. The steam valve was opened to maintain the temperature and pressure in the reactor at 170 ℃ and 0.8MPa, respectively, for 10 min. And opening an exhaust valve and taking out the pretreated wheat straws. The wheat straw fully absorbs the oxalic acid solution, and no wastewater is generated in the whole process. The solid content of the obtained pretreated wheat straw is 44.2 percent, and the requirement of subsequent high-solid content biological processing is met. Analysis on the components of the pretreated wheat straw shows that the cellulose retention rate is 88.1 percent, the total xylose (including xylose and xylo-oligosaccharide) recovery rate is 82.5 percent, the pretreated wheat straw solid is hydrolyzed for 72 hours under the conditions of pH4.8 and 50 ℃ by adding 15FPU/gDM cellulose into a system with 5 percent (w/w) solid content, and the final cellulase hydrolysis efficiency is 86.8 percent. Continuously carrying out solid state fermentation on the pretreated wheat straws, inoculating paecilomyces variotii FN89(CGMCC 17665) culture according to the inoculation amount of 10% (w/w), and culturing for 72h under the conditions of ventilation of 0.6vvm and the temperature of 28 ℃ to obtain the lignocellulose product without the acid catalyst and the inhibitor. The lactic acid fermentation broth is used for biological lactic acid fermentation, and the yield of lactic acid in the final fermentation broth reaches 121.5g/L at the solid content of 30 percent. The concentration of the sulfur ions in the biological lactic acid fermentation lignin residue is detected to be 2.8g/kg by using inductively coupled plasma chromatography, and is about 1/6 of the concentration of the sulfuric acid pretreatment.
Example 3:
the method for pretreating corn stalks by using solid oxalic acid comprises the following steps:
a solution of 50g of oxalic acid solid and 471g of water was added to the pretreatment reactor. 1380g of crushed and dried corn straw is weighed and added into a pretreatment reactor. The pretreatment reactor was stirred at 50rpm for 4min to ensure adequate mixing of the corn stover and oxalic acid solution. The steam valve was opened to maintain the temperature and pressure in the reactor at 165 ℃ and 0.6MPa, respectively, for 10 min. And opening an exhaust valve and removing the pretreated corn straws. The corn stalk fully absorbs the oxalic acid solution, and no waste water is generated in the whole process. The solid content of the obtained pretreated wheat straw is 46.2 percent, and the requirement of subsequent high-solid content biological processing is met. Analysis of the components of the pretreated wheat straw showed that the cellulose retention was 92.8% and the recovery of total xylose (including xylose and xylo-oligosaccharide) was 88.5%. The pretreated corn stalk solid is added with 10FPU/gDM cellulose in a system with 5% (w/w) solid content, and is hydrolyzed for 72 hours under the conditions of pH4.8 and 50 ℃, and the final cellulase hydrolysis efficiency is 82.5%. Continuously carrying out solid state fermentation on the pretreated corn straws, inoculating a paecilomyces variotii FN89(CGMCC 17665) culture according to the inoculation amount of 10% (w/w), and culturing for 72h under the conditions of ventilation of 0.6vvm and the temperature of 28 ℃ to obtain a lignocellulose product without an acid catalyst and an inhibitor. The pretreated corn straws are immediately used for biological oil fermentation, and the highest biological oil yield reaches 29.87g/L under the solid content of 30 percent. The concentration of the sulfur ions in the lignin residue of the biolipid fermentation is detected to be 2.2g/kg by using inductively coupled plasma chromatography, which is about 1/7 of the concentration of the sulfuric acid pretreatment.
The above examples demonstrate that the lignocellulose pretreatment method using the biodegradable organic acid catalyst can realize efficient pretreatment of the lignocellulose raw material, and completely achieve the effect of conventional dilute sulfuric acid pretreatment. In the whole pretreatment process using oxalic acid, the preparation of the dilute oxalic acid solution is safe and simple; the high solid-liquid ratio ensures that the materials completely absorb the acid solution in the treatment process without generating any free wastewater; the material obtained after biodegradation has no organic acid catalyst and inhibitor residue; the sulfur ion content in the lignin residue after fermentation is greatly reduced. The technology minimizes the pollution emission in the process of pretreating the lignocellulose by acid, saves the energy consumption, simplifies the production process, reduces the production cost and has great industrial application potential.
The foregoing descriptions of specific exemplary embodiments of the present invention have been presented for purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to limit the invention to the precise form disclosed, and obviously many modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teaching. The exemplary embodiments were chosen and described in order to explain certain principles of the invention and its practical application to enable one skilled in the art to make and use various exemplary embodiments of the invention and various alternatives and modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated. It is intended that the scope of the invention be defined by the claims and their equivalents.