Use of cellulase from pseudomonas fluorescens for the hydrolysis of wastepaper in an attrition bioreactor
Typically, municipal solid waste is made up of about 48% paper, 25% glass, 13% plastics, 6% steel 2% aluminum and 6% other materials. The volume of this material is very large, estimated to be in excess of 180 million tons/yr in the United States with newsprint alone making up about 14% of the total. Segregated wastepaper products could be an ideal feed material for biological conversion to sugars with the possibility of subsequent conversion to ethanol. If half of the newsprint were recycled and only half of the remaining paper products were available as a feedstock, over 30 million tons/yr would be available for processing. With an 80% conversion of the included cellulose to ethanol, this would represent a potential for over 4 billion gal/yr of ethanol or nearly 4 times the present yearly U.S. production. The primary processing steps for such a process must include: (1) handling and size reduction of wastepaper, (2) enzyme production for use in a hydrolysis reactor, (3) enzymatic hydrolysis of the cellulose fraction, (4) a fermentation system for conversion of hydrolyzed sugars to a crude aqueous ethanol, and (5) a means of concentrating and purifying the end product. At the present time, the critical steps in this approach involve the production and use of enzymes in an effective hydrolysis reactor. One possible approach involves the simultaneous saccharification of cellulose and fermentation of the resulting glucose to ethanol (SSF). The approach studied in this note represents an alternative to SSF. The idea is to optimize the enzymatic hydrolysis and fermentation steps separately. For wastepaper hydrolysis, the authors approach is to provide an attritting force which constantly creates fresh surface area for enzyme attack. Specifically, this paper describes preliminary findings for the use of a bacterial cellulase in an attrition bioreactor for the purpose of enhancing the hydrolysis of cellulose in wastepaper.
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-84OR21400
- OSTI ID:
- 10159322
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-940526-2; ON: DE94013623; TRN: 94:006479
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 16. symposium on biotechnology for fuels and chemicals, Gatlinburg, TN (United States), 9-13 May 1994
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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