Saccharification of wood and lignocellulosic biomass: A review

Abstract

Saccharification of wood is gaining commercial importance nowadays as a means of producing cost-effective bioenergy products. The wood waste contains around 65% of carbohydrates in the cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin. If these carbohydrates are changed into simple sugars, they could be used as a source of carbohydrate feed for cattle, chickens and other livestock. The conversion of polymers present in the lignocellulosic biomass of wood into fermentable sugars can be achieved through physical, chemical, physio-chemical and enzymatic pre-treatments methods. To realize the importance of lignocellulosic bioenergy, which is of global interest, enzymatic saccharification step acts as an essential stage to convert polymers to mono-sugars. This mini-review focuses on wood saccharification with improved and efficient pre-treatment, enzymatic saccharification process and detailed of enzymatic saccharification for the production of different bioenergy products are discussed.