Complete Cycle from Feedstock Miscanthus Giganteus to Target Product Bacterial Nanocellulose

Abstract

Valuable bacterial nanocellulose (BNC) was produced herein from the abundant, cheap, lignocellulosic feedstock Miscanthus giganteus of the variety Kamis from the Russian selection. Four methods using dilute solutions of nitric acid and sodium hydroxide were examined for pretreating M. giganteus for the first time. Further, the stages involving enzymatic hydrolysis of the resultant pulps and biosynthesis of BNC using symbiotic culture Kombucha were carried out under the same conditions. Through comparing the BNC yield using four pretreatment methods on the conversion of M. giganteus, and one-step nitric acid pretreatment was the best method. And the yield of BNC was 1.7 - 1.9 times higher than other pretreatment methods. Unlike the majority of similar works, the present study performed a complete conversion cycle from the Miscanthus into BNC and made a full calculation of the yield of intermediates and the target product.