Enzymatic Hydrolysis of Pretreated Newspaper Having High Lignin Content for Bioethanol Production

Recovered papers are suitable biomass sources for conversion into sugars that can be used in bioethanol production. However, paper materials with a high lignin content have been found to be recalcitrant to enzymatic hydrolysis. To address this issue, several biomass pretreatment methods were employed to evaluate their efficiency on the conversion of newspaper with high lignin content to sugar. Autohydrolysis, a hot water treatment, was identified to adversely affect sugar conversion, presumably as a result of pore collapse under high-temperature pretreatment. Flexo ink, used in newspaper printing, had no effect on the enzymatic hydrolysis, with or without autohydrolysis. The ink was still detachable after autohydrolysis, as measured by hyperwashing. Compared to untreated newspaper, separate treatments of either mechanical refining or a non-ionic surfactant (sorbitan polyoxyethylene monooleate) improved the sugar conversion by 10% at enzyme dosages of 2 and 8 FPU/g substrate. The combination of both refining and surfactant resulted in the highest sugar conversions, i.e., 46.3%, 56.7%, and 64.1% at 2, 4, and 8 FPU/g enzyme dosages, respectively. Oxidative pretreatment (oxygen, 100 degrees C) marginally increased the sugar conversion, whereas alkaline and green liquor (NaCO3 and Na2S) pretreatments (at 160 degrees C) had either no effect or decreased the sugar conversion. Based on the results of the pretreatments, higher pretreatment temperatures of newsprint negatively impacted subsequent enzyme hydrolysis.