Design of experiment-driven optimization of alkaline pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis for <i>parthenium hysterophorus</i>

The goal of this study is to find the best pretreatment conditions and look into how alkali pretreatment affects the amount of C5 sugar produced when <i>parthenium hysterophorus</i> (PH) is broken down by enzymes. This method made it easier to look at several factors at the same time that affect alkaline pretreatment (substrate concentration: 2-4%, NaOH concentration: 1.00-1.75%, autoclave duration: 20-40 min) and enzymatic hydrolysis (enzyme loading: 0.40-0.80 ml). We evaluated 30 experimental scenarios and attained the maximum C5 sugar production (0.219 g/g) after 12 hours of enzymatic hydrolysis under ideal conditions. The settings were a substrate concentration of 3%, a NaOH concentration of 1.37% w/v, autoclave duration of 30 minutes, and an enzyme loading of 0.60 ml. The examination of biomass composition indicated that the pretreatments achieved a substantial reduction in lignin content, with a delignification rate of 61.30%. This thorough experimental design achieved a high enzymatic hydrolysis efficiency of 73.08% for PH. This suggests that PH is a viable non-conventional lignocellulosic source for C5 sugar synthesis. Thus, alkali pretreatment has become an effective method for biomass valorization within the biorefinery context.