Application of ammonia pretreatment to enable enzymatic hydrolysis of hardwood biomass

Ammonia pretreatment greatly improves enzymatic hydrolysis of grass biomass, but is reported to be ineffective for hardwood biomass. Here, we examined the effectiveness of ammonia pretreatment of biomass from six hardwood species with different contents of xylan and lignin. Ammonia pretreatment greatly improved enzymatic hydrolysis of polysaccharides in birch and willow, but was less effective for acacia, eucalyptus, and poplar. The effectiveness of ammonia pretreatment increased with xylan content but decreased with lignin content of the hardwood species. By adding a recombinant xylanase to the commercial enzyme digestion cocktail, the yield of enzymatic hydrolysis of ammonia-pretreated birch biomass was improved to a similar level to that obtained with grass biomass. Our results indicate that enzymatic hydrolysis of biomass from hardwood species having a relatively high xylan/lignin ratio can be achieved with a xylanase-enriched enzyme cocktail after ammonia pretreatment. •Ammonia pretreatment improves the enzymatic hydrolysis of hardwood biomass.•Sugar yield depends positively on the xylan/lignin ratio of hardwood.•At high xylan/lignin ratio, high sugar yield can be achieved without delignification.•Sugar yield is markedly improved by supplementation with a selected xylanase.•Ammonia pretreatment is useful for the enzymatic hydrolysis of birch wood.