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  • Sugar yields from dilute oxalic acid pretreatment of maple wood compared to those with other dilute acids and hot water.

Sugar yields from dilute oxalic acid pretreatment of maple wood compared to those with other dilute acids and hot water.

Carbohydrate polymers (2012-12-12)
Taiying Zhang, Rajeev Kumar, Charles E Wyman
ABSTRACT

Dilute oxalic acid pretreatment was applied to maple wood to improve compatibility with downstream operations, and its performance in pretreatment and subsequent enzymatic hydrolysis was compared to results for hydrothermal and dilute hydrochloric and sulfuric acid pretreatments. The highest total xylose yield of ∼84% of the theoretical maximum was for both 0.5% oxalic and sulfuric acid pretreatment at 160 °C, compared to ∼81% yield for hydrothermal pretreatment at 200 °C and for 0.5% hydrochloric acid pretreatment at 140 °C. The xylooligomer fraction from dilute oxalic acid pretreatment was only 6.3% of the total xylose in solution, similar to results with dilute hydrochloric and sulfuric acids but much lower than the ∼70% value for hydrothermal pretreatment. Combining any of the four pretreatments with enzymatic hydrolysis with 60 FPU cellulase/g of glucan plus xylan in the pretreated maple wood resulted in virtually the same total glucose plus xylose yields of ∼85% of the maximum possible.

MATERIALS
Product Number
Brand
Product Description

Supelco
Sodium oxalate, reference material for titrimetry, certified by BAM, >99.5%
Sigma-Aldrich
Sodium oxalate, ≥99.99% trace metals basis
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Sodium oxalate, puriss. p.a., ACS reagent, ≥99.5% (RT)
Sigma-Aldrich
Sodium oxalate, BioXtra
Sigma-Aldrich
Sodium oxalate, ACS reagent, ≥99.5%
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Oxalic acid, purified grade, 99.999% trace metals basis
Supelco
Oxalic acid concentrate, 0.1 M (COOH)2 (0.2N), eluent concentrate for IC
Sigma-Aldrich
Oxalic acid, puriss. p.a., anhydrous, ≥99.0% (RT)
Sigma-Aldrich
Oxalic acid, 98%
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Oxalic acid, ReagentPlus®, ≥99%