Studies on delignification and inhibitory enzyme kinetics of alkaline peroxide pre-treated pine and deodar saw dust

[Display omitted] •Novel protocol for delignification developed to intensify downstream hydrolysis.•Relationship between delignification processes and biomass structure is considered.•Delignification kinetics is explored and related parameters estimated.•Monomeric sugars are generated by enzymatic hydrolysis of delignified biomass.•Inhibition kinetics is studied using both competitive and non-competitive models. Delignification of lignocellulosic biomass by alkaline peroxide pre-treatment is a preliminary important step for an overall biomass fractionation process. In the present work, saw dusts are pre-treated by aqueous alkaline peroxide solution under different temperatures over a predetermined time. It is seen that Combined Pre-treatment (CP) removes a substantially higher quantity of lignin from biomass under a particular temperature. At elevated temperatures, the extent of delignification is observed much better. The % removal is: [PR: 19.35%(30 °C):25.26%(50 °C):33.30%(100 °C)]; [CD:14.64%(30 °C):23.64%(50 °C): 28.83%(100 °C)]. Batch kinetics is investigated with certain models and corresponding parameters are estimated. As pre-treatment severity is strongly correlated to the pre-treatment temperature, increased value of “potential degree of delignification” is observed at escalated temperatures. Kinetics of enzymatic hydrolysis of delignified biomass shows decreased product inhibition with increased substrate concentration under a particular enzyme loading. Starting with a combination of 50 g/L substrate concentration with an enzyme loading of 13.23 g/L, an optimum concentration of 17.2 g/L and 21.19 g/L of glucose are produced from Pinus roxburghii and Cedrus deodara respectively. Experimental data fit quite well with the competitive inhibition kinetics based theoretical models with r2 ≥0.95. It is inferred that enzymes are competitively inhibited by glucose.