Evaluation of High Intensive Ball Mill Method for Effective Saccharification of Plant Cell Wall Materials

Abstract

Recently, demand for the bio-fuel (e.g. ethanol) production to overcome green house gas emission has been overwhelmingly accepted in many countries. The majority of bio-ethanol is being produced from sucrose (e.g. sugarcane) and starch (e.g. corn), simultaneously causing the problem of food shortage and the rise of commodity prices. Nevertheless, demand for bio-ethanol as an alternative fuel will increase in the near future. To satisfy such demand, sustainable agriculture and new technology for effective bio-ethanol production from cellulosic materials are urgently needed. Here, we report the effective saccharification of several plant materials, which are mechano-chemically prepared using a high intensive ball mill. Enzymatic digestion of rice straw, sugarbeet and sugarcane with cellulase and xylanase was enhanced by treatment with the high intensive ball mill. Analysis of the digests with cellulase and xylanase revealed an increase in the amount of glucose and xylose residues as compositional sugars. The results might be caused by the destruction of the physical structure of cell walls and non-crystallization of cellulose and depolymerization of wall polysaccharides, because of the occurrence of cello-oligosaccharides from cellulose paper and solubilization of the polysaccharides from plant materials after treatment with the high intensive ball mill. We concluded that treatment with a high intensive ball mill as pre-treatment for enzymatic hydrolysis leads to the effective saccharification of plant cell walls.