Sulfuric acid pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis of photoperiod sensitive sorghum for ethanol production

Bioprocess Biosyst Eng. 2011 May;34(4):485-92. doi: 10.1007/s00449-010-0492-9. Epub 2010 Dec 12.

Abstract

Photoperiod sensitive (PS) sorghum, with high soluble sugar content, high mass yield and high drought tolerance in dryland environments, has great potential for bioethanol production. The effect of diluted sulfuric acid pretreatment on enzymatic hydrolysis was investigated. Hydrolysis efficiency increased from 78.9 to 94.4% as the acid concentration increased from 0.5 to 1.5%. However, the highest total glucose yield (80.3%) occurred at the 1.0% acid condition because of the significant cellulose degradation at the 1.5% concentration. Synchrotron wide-angle X-ray diffraction was used to study changes of the degree of crystallinity. With comparison of cellulosic crystallinity and adjusted cellulosic crystallinity, the crystalline cellulose decreased after low acidic concentration (0.5%) applied, but did not change significantly, as the acid concentration increased. Scanning electron microscopy was also employed to understand how the morphological structure of PS sorghum changed after pretreatment. Under current processing conditions, the total ethanol yield is 74.5% (about 0.2 g ethanol from 1 g PS sorghum). A detail mass balance was also provided.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Biomass
  • Biotechnology / methods*
  • Cellulose / chemistry
  • Crystallization
  • Ethanol / chemistry
  • Fermentation
  • Hydrolysis
  • Lignin / chemistry
  • Microscopy, Electron, Scanning / methods
  • Photoperiod
  • Sorghum / chemistry
  • Sorghum / metabolism*
  • Sulfuric Acids / pharmacology*
  • Synchrotrons
  • Temperature
  • X-Ray Diffraction

Substances

  • Sulfuric Acids
  • Ethanol
  • Cellulose
  • Lignin
  • sulfuric acid