Pretreatment of Miscanthus with biomass‐degrading bacteria for increasing delignification and enzymatic hydrolysability

Biomass recalcitrance is still a main challenge for the production of biofuels and high‐value products. Here, an alternative Miscanthus pretreatment method by using lignin‐degrading bacteria was developed. Six efficient Miscanthus‐degrading bacteria were first cultured to produce laccase by using 0.5% Miscanthus biomass as carbon source. After 1–5 days of incubation, the maximum laccase activities induced by Miscanthus in the six strains were ranged from 103 to 8091 U l(−1). Then, the crude enzymes were directly diluted by equal volumes of citrate buffer and added Miscanthus biomass to a solid concentration at 4% (w/v). The results showed that all bacterial pretreatments significantly decreased the lignin content, especially in the presence of two laccase mediators (ABTS and HBT). The lignin removal directly correlated with increases in total sugar and glucose yields after enzymatic hydrolysis. When ABTS was used as a mediator, the best lignin‐degrading bacteria (Pseudomonas sp. AS1) can remove up to 50.1% lignin of Miscanthus by obtaining 2.2‐fold glucose yield, compared with that of untreated biomass. Therefore, this study provided an effective Miscanthus pretreatment method by using lignin‐degrading bacteria, which may be potentially used in improving enzymatic hydrolysability of biomass.