Understanding of promoting enzymatic hydrolysis of combined hydrothermal and deep eutectic solvent pretreated poplars by Tween 80

[Display omitted] •Tween 80 dramatically promoted the enzymatic hydrolysis of pretreated poplars.•Tween 80 was adsorbed on lignin more rapidly than enzyme.•Tween 80 decreased the binding capacity and rate of enzyme on lignins.•Cellulose accessibility affected enzymatic hydrolysis of poplars with Tween 80. In this study, lignin blockers including non-catalytic protein and surfactants were employed to promote enzymatic digestibility of pretreated poplars. Among them, Tween 80 exhibited the most pronounced facilitation, improving the glucose yield from 26.6% to 99.6% at a low enzyme loading (10 FPU/g glucan), and readily reduced the required cellulase loading by 75%. The underlying mechanism for this remarkable improvement on glucose yields by Tween 80 was elucidated. The impacts of Tween 80 on the enzyme-lignin interaction were explored by quartz crystal microbalance analysis, revealing that the binding rate of Tween 80 on lignin surfaces was 3-fold higher than that of enzyme. More importantly, Tween 80 remarkably decreased the binding capacity and binding rate of enzyme on lignins. Furthermore, the substrate properties dominating the increase in glucose yields with Tween 80 were explored. The results facilitate to understand the underlying mechanism of the promotion of surfactants on enzymatic hydrolysis.