Using low carbon footprint high-pressure carbon dioxide in bioconversion of aspen branch waste for sustainable bioethanol production

Yingji Wu; Shengbo Ge; Changlei Xia; Liping Cai; Changtong Mei; Christian Sonne; Young-Kwon Park; Young-Min Kim; Wei-Hsin Chen; Jo-Shu Chang; Su Shiung Lam

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2020.123675

Using low carbon footprint high-pressure carbon dioxide in bioconversion of aspen branch waste for sustainable bioethanol production

Bioresour Technol. 2020 Oct:313:123675. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2020.123675. Epub 2020 Jun 13.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Co-Innovation Center of Efficient Processing and Utilization of Forestry Resources, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210037, China.
² Co-Innovation Center of Efficient Processing and Utilization of Forestry Resources, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210037, China; Anhui Juke Graphene Technology Co., Ltd., Bozhou, Anhui 233600, China.
³ Aarhus University, Department of Bioscience, Arctic Research Centre (ARC), Frederiksborgvej 399, PO Box 358, DK-4000 Roskilde, Denmark.
⁴ School of Environmental Engineering, University of Seoul, Seoul 02504, Republic of Korea.
⁵ Department of Environmental Engineering, Daegu University, Gyeongsan 38453, Republic of Korea.
⁶ Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 701, Taiwan; Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, College of Engineering, Tunghai University, Taichung 407, Taiwan; Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Chin-Yi University of Technology, Taichung 411, Taiwan.
⁷ Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, College of Engineering, Tunghai University, Taichung 407, Taiwan; Department of Chemical Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 701, Taiwan.
⁸ Pyrolysis Technology Research Group, Institute of Tropical Aquaculture and Fisheries (AKUATROP), Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, 21030 Kuala Nerus, Terengganu, Malaysia; Henan Province Engineering Research Center for Biomass Value-Added Products, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou, Henan 450002, China; Anhui Juke Graphene Technology Co., Ltd., Bozhou, Anhui 233600, China. Electronic address: lam@umt.edu.my.

PMID: 32563796
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2020.123675

Abstract

An innovative approach was developed by incorporating high-pressure CO₂ into the separate hydrolysis-fermentation of aspen leftover branches, aiming to enhance the bioethanol production efficiency. The high-pressure CO₂ significantly increased the 72-h enzymatic hydrolysis yield of converting aspen into glucose from 53.8% to 82.9%. The hydrolysis process was performed with low enzyme loading (10 FPU g^-1 glucan) with the aim of reducing the cost of fuel bioethanol production. The ethanol yield from fermentation of the hydrolyzed glucose using yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) was 8.7 g L^-1, showing increment of 10% compared with the glucose control. Techno-economic analysis indicated that the energy consumption of fuel bioethanol production from aspen branch chips was reduced by 35% and the production cost was cut 44% to 0.615 USD L^-1, when 68 atm CO₂ was introduced into the process. These results furtherly emphasized the low carbon footprint of this sustainable energy production approach.

Keywords: Biofuel; Biomass; Carbon dioxide (CO(2)); Separate hydrolysis-fermentation (SHF); Yeast fermentation.

MeSH terms

Biofuels*
Biomass
Carbon Dioxide*
Carbon Footprint
Ethanol
Fermentation
Hydrolysis

Substances

Biofuels
Carbon Dioxide
Ethanol