Researchers led by Prof. LI Fuli from the Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology (QIBEBT) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences proposed a novel pretreatment method, named AHP-LiCl/DMAc, to improve corn stalk degradation by forceful delignification for enhanced biomethanation. The study was published in Environmental Research.

The researchers aimed to utilize novel pretreatment method that could degrade corn stalk and improve biomethane yield. They found that the proposed pretreatment method improved accumulative methane yield by forceful delignification and effectively destroyed the structure of cellulose.

The results showed that the ionic solvent LiCl/DMAc enhanced cellulose dissolution and improved enzymatic saccharification in fermentative bacteria without structural modifications.

The researchers found that the AHP-LiCl/DMAc treated group of corn stalk enhanced 41% of biomethane from un-treated group, a huge difference from previously applied pretreatment strategies.

Overall, this investigation proved a promising pretreatment method for enhancing the degradation of corn stock into reducing sugars and improving methane generation.

In their previous review article published in Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, the authors discussed more biological, chemical and physical pretreatment methods.

Dr. LU stated that cellulase, hemicellulose and lignin degradation enzymes, the efficient bio-catalyst, could efficiently convert the lignocellulosic biomass into sugars that could be further processed into bio-fuels, bio-chemical and bio-material for human requirement. Emerging research has focused in order of economical, eco-friendly and time-effective solutions, for large-scale operational approach.

"We hope our study could make a contribution to the biogas industry," said LU Ming, corresponding author of the study.