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Techniques for the Evolution of Robust Pentose-fermenting Yeast for Bioconversion of Lignocellulose to Ethanol
Published on: October 24, 2016
Boosting the fermentable sugar yield and concentration of corn stover by magnesium oxide pretreatment for ethanol
Jun Li1, Wentao Li1, Meng Zhang2
1Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506, USA.
Abstract:
MgO pretreatment was investigated to boost the fermentable sugars derived from corn stover with LHW pretreatment as control. Compared to LHW pretreatment, MgO pretreatment caused twice hemicellulose recovery (42 vs 21%). Double hemicellulose recovery not only didn't affect glucose yield but increased xylose yield by 13% and total sugar yield by 6% under the optimal conditions (pretreatment: 10% biomass loading, 0.1 mol/L MgO, 190 °C, and 40 min; hydrolysis: pretreated biomass loading of 10 g/100 mL, enzyme loading of 1 mL/g pretreated biomass, 50 °C, and 120 h). A total sugar concentration of 50 g/L was obtained under the above conditions. Besides, the enzyme component hydrolyzing xylan may be prone to deactivation by lignin residues in pretreated biomass. Both SEM and FTIR analyses indicate that MgO effectively disrupted the biomass structures and enlarged the exposed surface area of carbohydrates, thus boosting the enzymatic hydrolysis and fermentable sugars for ethanol production.
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