Production of Biocellulosic Ethanol from Wheat Straw

Abstract

Wheat straw is an abundant lignocellulosic feedstock in many parts of the world, and has been selected for producing ethanol in an economically feasible manner. It contains a mixture of sugars (hexoses and pentoses).Two-stage acid hydrolysis was carried out with concentrates of perchloric acid, using wheat straw. The hydrolysate was concentrated by vacuum evaporation to increase the concentration of fermentable sugars, and was detoxified by over-liming to decrease the concentration of fermentation inhibitors. After two-stage acid hydrolysis, the sugars and the inhibitors were measured. The ethanol yields obtained from by converting hexoses and pentoses in the hydrolysate with the co-culture of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Pichia stipites were higher than the ethanol yields produced with a monoculture of S. cerevisiae. Various conditions for hysdrolysis and fermentation were investigated. The ethanol concentration was 11.42 g/l in 42 h of incubation, with a yield of 0.475 g/g, productivity of 0.272 gl ·h, and fermentation efficiency of 92.955 %, using a co-culture of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Pichia stipites