Innovative methods to generate clean sugar stream from biomass feedstocks for efficient fermentation

Sorghum stalks were evaluated to generate clean sugars; enzymatic hydrolysis efficiency of acid pretreated biomass was significantly low (12.3 g sugar/g pretreated biomass) compared to alkali method (49.1 g sugar/g pretreated biomass). Inhibitory compounds derived from acid pretreatment, such as hydroxymethyl furfural (HMF) and furfural, were effectively removed using an appropriate detoxification method using 1% (w/v) activated charcoal. The resin mixture containing cationic exchangers (DOWEX 50WX8) and anionic exchangers (IRA 743) in 7:3 ratio at pH 2.7 completely removed HMF, acetic acid and formic acid with less than 2% (w/w) sugar loss, leading to efficient detoxification of inhibitory compounds.