The enzymatic conversion of lignocellulosic material to sugars can provide a carbon source for the production of energy (fuels) and a wide range of renewable products. However, the efficiency of this conversion is impaired due to product (sugar) inhibition. Even though several studies investigate how to overcome this challenge, concepts on the process to conduct the hydrolysis are still scarce in literature. Aqueous two-phase systems (ATPS) can be applied to design an extractive reaction due to their capacity to partition solutes to different phases in such a system. This work presents strategies on how to conduct extractive enzymatic hydrolysis in ATPS and how to explore the experimental results in order to design a feasible process. While only a limited number of ATPS was explored, the methods and strategies described could easily be applied to any further ATPS to be explored. We studied two promising ATPS as a subset of a previously high throughput screened large set of ATPS, providing two configurations of processes having the reaction in either the top phase or in the bottom phase. Enzymatic hydrolysis in these ATPS was performed to evaluate the partitioning of the substrate and the influence of solute partitioning on conversion. Because ATPS are able to partition inhibitors (sugar) between the phases, the conversion rate can be maintained. However, phase forming components should be selected to preserve the enzymatic activity. The experimental results presented here contribute to a feasible ATPS-based conceptual process design for the enzymatic conversion of lignocellulosic material.

木质纤维素材料向糖的酶促转化可以为能源（燃料）和各种可再生产品的生产提供碳源。然而，由于产物（糖）抑制，这种转化的效率受到损害。尽管有几项研究调查了如何克服这一挑战，但文献中仍然缺乏有关进行水解过程的概念。水两相系统 (ATPS) 可用于设计萃取反应，因为它们能够将溶质分配到此类系统中的不同相。这项工作提出了如何在 ATPS 中进行提取酶水解以及如何探索实验结果以设计可行的工艺的策略。虽然只探索了有限数量的 ATPS，但所描述的方法和策略可以很容易地应用于任何进一步探索的 ATPS。我们研究了两种有前途的 ATPS，作为先前高通量筛选的大量 ATPS 的子集，提供了两种在顶部阶段或底部阶段进行反应的工艺配置。在这些 ATPS 中进行酶水解，以评估底物的分配以及溶质分配对转化的影响。由于 ATPS 能够在各相之间分配抑制剂（糖），因此可以保持转化率。然而，应选择相形成组分以保持酶活性。本文提出的实验结果有助于为木质纤维素材料的酶促转化提供可行的基于 ATPS 的概念工艺设计。