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Techniques for the Evolution of Robust Pentose-fermenting Yeast for Bioconversion of Lignocellulose to Ethanol
Published on: October 24, 2016
Ethanol production from horticultural waste treated by a modified organosolv method
Anli Geng1, Fengxue Xin, Jun-yu Ip
1School of Life Sciences and Chemical Technology, Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Singapore. gan2@np.edu.sg
Abstract:
In this study, we investigated the use of horticultural waste (HW) collected in Singapore as a renewable raw material for bioethanol production. A modified organosolv method using ethanol cooking under mild conditions followed by H(2)O(2) post-treatment was investigated for HW pretreatment. It was found that the addition of acid catalysts in the pretreatment process was not critical and post-treatment using H(2)O(2) was essential for the enhancement of HW digestibility. Enzymatic hydrolysis of the organosolv pretreated HW with 17.5% solid content, enzyme loading of 20 FPU/g HW of filter paper cellulase, and 80 CBU/g HW of β-glucosidase resulted in a HW hydrolysate containing 26.9 g/L reducing sugar after 72 h. Fermentation of the above hydrolysate medium produced 11.69 g/L ethanol at 8h using Saccharomyces cerevisiae. It proved that horticultural waste was a potential feedstock for fuel ethanol production and organosolv pretreatment method developed in this study was effective.
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