Optimization of Enzymatic Hydrolysis of Steam Pretreated Triticale Straw

Efficient conversion of the carbohydrates into fermentable sugars is crucial for industrial implementation of 2G biofuels such as bioethanol. The main objective of this study was to improve the enzymatic hydrolysis of steam pretreated triticale straw (slurry, pressed-slurry or water insoluble solids (WIS)) by optimal combination of cellulase (Cellic® CTec2) and hemicellulase (Cellic® HTec2) and incubation period for a target glucan conversion of 80 %. Among the three substrates evaluated, pressed-slurry and WIS resulted in similar sugar yields but WIS presented lower enzyme requirements. Different combinations of cellulase and endo-xylanase could provide an 80 % of glucan conversion depending on the weight assigned to constrain. The selected enzyme combination, 0.1 mL Cellic®CTec2/g WIS and 0.2 mL Cellic®HTec2/g WIS, could achieve a glucan conversion of 80 % in 45 h (desirability of 0.9). Doubling the enzyme dosage could further improve the saccharification productivity by reducing the incubation period to 37 h. The optimisation of enzymatic hydrolysis of lignocellulosic substrates, to reduce the cost of sugars production, is a compromise between substrate, enzyme dosage, incubation time and the benchmark yield, although a more favourable response can be generated with an optimised combination of enzymes.