Ultrasound Assisted Alkaline Pre‐treatment Efficiently Solubilises Hemicellulose from Oat Hulls

The establishment of sustainable bioeconomies requires the utilization of new renewable biomaterials. One such material currently seen as a waste product is oat hulls. Oat hulls exhibit a great potential for the production of dietary fibres due to their exceptionally large hemicellulose content (35%). Their recalcitrant structure however requires a suitable pre-treatment method to access and process the hemicellulose. After a screening of various physical, chemical and physico-chemical pre-treatment methods, including autoclaving, ultrasonication, microwave-, deep eutectic solvents-, as well as alkaline treatments, a combined ultrasonication and alkali pre-treatment method was here found to be the most suitable. A factorial design resulted in optimized conditions of 10 min ultrasonication in water, followed by an incubation in 5 M NaOH at 80 ºC for 9 h yielding solubilisation of 72% of all hemicellulose in the hulls. The method was shown to efficiently break the ester bonds between ferulic acid and the hemicellulose main chain, contributing to its solubilisation. Graphic Abstract