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Published on: October 24, 2016
Ethanol production from rice straw using optimized aqueous-ammonia soaking pretreatment and simultaneous
Ja Kyong Ko1, Jin Seop Bak, Min Woo Jung
1School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Korea University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Abstract:
Rice straw was pretreated using aqueous-ammonia solution at moderate temperatures to enable production of the maximum amount of fermentable sugars from enzymatic hydrolysis. The effects of various operating variables including pretreatment temperature, pretreatment time, the concentration of ammonia and the solid-to-liquid ratio on the degree of lignin removal and the enzymatic digestibility were optimized using response surface methodology. The optimal reaction conditions, which resulted in an enzymatic digestibility of 71.1%, were found to be 69 degrees C, 10h and an ammonia concentration of 21% (w/w). The effects of different commercial cellulases and the additional effect of a non-cellulolytic enzyme, xylanase, were also evaluated. Additionally, simultaneous saccharification and fermentation was conducted with rice straw to assess the ethanol production yield and productivity.
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