{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,21]],"date-time":"2026-07-21T06:05:01Z","timestamp":1784613901609,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":18,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,21]],"date-time":"2026-07-21T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1784592000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Chem."],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Introduction<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Recovering hemicellulose from woody biomass prior to acid hydrolysis\/dehydration (AHDH) processing can improve the yield and economics of levulinic acid (LA) production, but the effects of chemical preconditioning on subsequent LA yields and process economics remain to be characterized for softwood feedstocks.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>A pilot-scale chemical preconditioning system (CPS), operated with and without dilute sulfuric acid (0.25 wt%) and steam, was used to recover hemicellulose from raw white pine wood chips (39.5% glucan, 16.6% total hemicellulose [3.8% xylan, 10.1% mannan, 1.9% galactan, 0.7% arabinan], and 44.6% acid-insoluble lignin, oven-dry basis) prior to processing in a bench-scale AHDH reactor. Preconditioning was evaluated across a range of temperatures, residence times, biomass species, moisture contents, and particle sizes (1 mm to \u223c18 mm) to determine effects on LA yield. A techno-economic analysis was also performed to estimate the minimum selling price of the resulting mixed sugar stream.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      CPS effectively removed hemicellulose from wood chips, achieving complete xylan removal at 200 \u00b0C. Preconditioning at 170 \u00b0C for 30 minutes with 0.25 wt% H\n                      <jats:sub>2<\/jats:sub>\n                      SO\n                      <jats:sub>4<\/jats:sub>\n                      increased LA yield from 0.21 mol\/mol glucan (untreated) to 0.52\u20130.53 mol\/mol glucan, a 2.5-fold improvement. CPS temperature, residence time, and biomass species influenced LA yields, whereas moisture content and particle size did not have a significant effect. The techno-economic analysis estimated a minimum selling price of $0.42\/kg for a mixed sugar stream at \u223c100 g\/L concentration.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Discussion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>The LA yields achieved through mild chemical preconditioning (0.52\u20130.53 mol\/mol glucan) were comparable to those obtained using more severe dilute acid (0.64 mol\/mol) and SPORL (0.60 mol\/mol) pretreatments, suggesting that CPS offers a less severe, potentially lower-cost alternative for enhancing LA production. The estimated minimum selling price of $0.42\/kg falls within the $0.30\u2013$0.60\/kg range typical of commercial mixed C5\/C6 fermentation feedstocks, indicating that CPS-based hemicellulose recovery is economically competitive and could be integrated into softwood-based AHDH processing without the need for more severe pretreatment conditions.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fchem.2026.1879689","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,21]],"date-time":"2026-07-21T05:35:19Z","timestamp":1784612119000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Effects of chemical preconditioning on organic acid production from woody biomass"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"14","author":[{"given":"Sampath","family":"Gunukula","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Forest Bioproducts Research Institute and Chemical and Biomedical Engineering Department, University of Maine","place":["Orono, ME, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"M. Clayton","family":"Wheeler","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Forest Bioproducts Research Institute and Chemical and Biomedical Engineering Department, University of Maine","place":["Orono, ME, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"C. Luke","family":"Williams","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Idaho National Laboratory, Energy and Environment Science and Technology","place":["Idaho Falls, ID, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"David","family":"Thompson","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Idaho National Laboratory, Energy and Environment Science and Technology","place":["Idaho Falls, ID, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Eliezer A.","family":"Reyes Molina","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Idaho National Laboratory, Energy and Environment Science and Technology","place":["Idaho Falls, ID, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ravikant","family":"Patil","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Forest Bioproducts Research Institute and Chemical and Biomedical Engineering Department, University of Maine","place":["Orono, ME, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Stephanie","family":"Ossai","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Forest Bioproducts Research Institute and Chemical and Biomedical Engineering Department, University of Maine","place":["Orono, ME, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Peter","family":"van Walsum","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Forest Bioproducts Research Institute and Chemical and Biomedical Engineering Department, University of Maine","place":["Orono, ME, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xiaowen","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering, University of Minnesota","place":["Minneapolis, MN, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,21]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"2329","DOI":"10.3390\/molecules25102329","article-title":"Sustainable process for the depolymerization\/oxidation of softwood and Hardwood kraft lignins using hydrogen peroxide under ambient conditions","volume":"25","author":"Ahmad","year":"2020","journal-title":"Molecules"},{"key":"B2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"4851","DOI":"10.1016\/j.biortech.2009.11.093","article-title":"Pretreatment technologies for an efficient bioethanol production process based on enzymatic hydrolysis: a review","volume":"101","author":"Alvira","year":"2010","journal-title":"Bioresour. 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