Bench-scale bioethanol production from eucalyptus by high solid saccharification and glucose/xylose fermentation method

Bioprocess Biosyst Eng. 2014 Apr;37(4):749-54. doi: 10.1007/s00449-013-1032-1. Epub 2013 Aug 6.

Abstract

In the bioethanol production process, high solid saccharification and glucose/xylose co-fermentation are important technologies for obtaining increased ethanol concentrations; however, bench-scale studies using combinations of these methods are limited. In this study, we hydrolyzed high solid concentration of milled eucalyptus using commercial enzymes and obtained 138.4 g/L total monomeric sugar concentration. These sugars were fermented to 53.5 g/L of ethanol by a xylose-utilizing recombinant Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain, MA-R4. These experiments were performed in bench scale (using 50 L scale solid mixer and 70 L scale fermenter). The results obtained in this study were comparable to our previous results in laboratory scale, indicating that we successfully achieved an efficient high solid saccharification and glucose/xylose co-fermentation system in bench scale.

MeSH terms

  • Ethanol / metabolism*
  • Eucalyptus / chemistry*
  • Fermentation / physiology*
  • Glucose* / chemistry
  • Glucose* / metabolism
  • Saccharomyces cerevisiae / genetics
  • Saccharomyces cerevisiae / growth & development*
  • Xylose* / chemistry
  • Xylose* / metabolism

Substances

  • Ethanol
  • Xylose
  • Glucose