Evaluation of Xylooligosaccharides Production for a Specific Degree of Polymerization by Liquid Hot Water Treatment of Tropical Hardwood

Eucalyptus pellita is known as attractive biomass, and it has been utilized for eucalyptus oil, furniture, and pulp and paper production that causes a significant amount of byproducts. Liquid hot water treatment depending on combined severity factor (CSF) was subjected to isolate hemicellulose fraction from E. pellita and to produce xylooligosaccharides (XOS). The xylan extraction ratio based on the initial xylan content of the feedstock was maximized up to 77.6% at 170 °C for 50 min condition (CSF: 1.0), which had accounted for XOS purity of 76.5% based on the total sugar content of the liquid hydrolysate. In this condition, the sum of xylobiose, xylotriose, and xylotetraose which has a low degree of polymerization (DP) of 2 to 4 was determined as 80.6% of the total XOS. The highest XOS production score established using parameters including the xylan extraction ratio, XOS purity, and low DP XOS ratio was 5.7 at CSF 1.0 condition. XOS production score evaluated using the CSF is expected to be used as a productivity indicator of XOS in the industry (R-squared value: 0.92).