Synergetic Degradation of Corn Cob with Inorganic Salt (or Hydrogen Peroxide) and Electron Beam Irradiation

This study focused on the influence of inorganic salt (MnCl2, FeCl3, NaHCO3) or H2O2 combined with electron beam irradiation (EBI) at 90, 180, and 270 kGy on the content and structure of the three major components (cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin) of corn cob in the pretreatment process. Acemonium cellulase (10 FPU/g of corn cob) were used to hydrolyze the pretreated samples for 96 h. The results indicated that the combined methods showed an obvious synergetic effect on the removal of hemicellulose and lignin and the reduction of degree of polymerization (DP) of cellulose, while the cellulose recovery decreased slightly during the treatment. Particularly, at the optimum conditions (2% NaHCO3 with EBI at 180 kGy), the highest 70.5% hemicellulose and 34.7% lignin removal were achieved with the DP of cellulose decreasing from 1081 of raw to 82. The results of Fourier-transform infrared spectra (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis showed that the IR crystallinity index of cellulose decr...