Evaluation of pitch pine for bioethanol production by organosolv pretreatment

In this study, the feasibility of utilizing wood chips from pitch pine (Pinus rigida) was evaluated for bioethanol production by an organosolv pretreatment and enzymatic sac - charification. When wood chips from pitch wood were pretreated with 75% (v/v) ethanol and 1.7% sulfuric acid as a catalyst at H-factor 2000, average pulp yield was 43.3%, which pretreated wood fibers showed higher glucan (55.8%) and lower lignin (12.2%) contents than untreated control (43.9% glucan and 27.8% lignin). After enzymatic saccharification, the organosolv pulps with 56.2% delignification rate reached above 97% conversion rate of cellulose to glucose. These results indicated that increasing the delignification rate causes micro pores on the surface of organosolv pulps resulting in improved the accessibility of enzyme onto the substrate. Moreover, it was in agreement with the SEM examination of wood fibers.