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Title: A comparative study of ethanol production using dilute acid, ionic liquid and AFEX™ pretreated corn stover

Abstract

In a biorefinery producing cellulosic biofuels, biomass pretreatment will significantly influence the efficacy of enzymatic hydrolysis and microbial fermentation. Comparison of different biomass pretreatment techniques by studying the impact of pretreatment on downstream operations at industrially relevant conditions and performing comprehensive mass balances will help focus attention on necessary process improvements, and thereby help reduce the cost of biofuel production. An on-going collaboration between the three US Department of Energy (DOE) funded bioenergy research centers (Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC), Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) and BioEnergy Science Center (BESC)) has given us a unique opportunity to compare the performance of three pretreatment processes, notably dilute acid (DA), ionic liquid (IL) and ammonia fiber expansion (AFEXTM), using the same source of corn stover. Separate hydrolysis and fermentation (SHF) was carried out using various combinations of commercially available enzymes and engineered yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae 424A) strain. The optimal commercial enzyme combination (Ctec2: Htec2: Multifect Pectinase, percentage total protein loading basis) was evaluated for each pretreatment with a microplate-based assay using milled pretreated solids at 0.2% glucan loading and 15 mg total protein loading/g of glucan. The best enzyme combinations were 67:33:0 for DA, 39:33:28 for IL and 67:17:17 for AFEX. Themore » amounts of sugar (kg) (glucose: xylose: total gluco- and xylo-oligomers) per 100 kg of untreated corn stover produced after 72 hours of 6% glucan loading enzymatic hydrolysis were: DA (25:2:2), IL (31:15:2) and AFEX (26:13:7). Additionally, the amounts of ethanol (kg) produced per 100 kg of untreated corn stover and the respective ethanol metabolic yield (%) achieved with exogenous nutrient supplemented fermentations were: DA (14.0, 92.0%), IL (21.2, 93.0%) and AFEX (20.5, 95.0%), respectively. The reason for lower ethanol yield for DA is because most of the xylose produced during the pretreatment was removed and not converted to ethanol during fermentation. Compositional analysis of the pretreated biomass solids showed no significant change in composition for AFEX treated corn stover, while about 85% of hemicellulose was solubilized after DA pretreatment, and about 90% of lignin was removed after IL pretreatment. As expected, the optimal commercial enzyme combination was different for the solids prepared by different pretreatment technologies. Due to loss of nutrients during the pretreatment and washing steps, DA and IL pretreated hydrolysates required exogenous nutrient supplementation to ferment glucose and xylose efficiently, while AFEX pretreated hydrolysate did not require nutrient supplementation.« less

Authors:
 [1];  [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [5];  [1];  [1]
  1. Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI (United States). Dept. of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science. Dept. of Energy (DOE) Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC)
  2. Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI (United States). Dept. of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science. Dept. of Energy (DOE) Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC); Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States). Dept. of Biochemistry. Dept. of Energy (DOE) Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC)
  3. Jilin TuoPai Agriculture Products Development Ltd, Jilin (China)
  4. Joint BioEnergy Inst. (JBEI), Emeryville, CA (United States). Deconstruction Division; Sandia National Lab. (SNL-CA), Livermore, CA (United States). Biological and Material Science Center
  5. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). BioEnergy Science Center (BESC); Univ. of California, Riverside, CA (United States). Dept. of Chemical and Environmental Engineering. Bourns College of Engineering. Center for Environmental Research and Technology (CE-CERT)
  6. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). BioEnergy Science Center (BESC); Univ. of California, Riverside, CA (United States). Center for Environmental Research and Technology (CE-CERT). Bourns College of Engineering
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
OSTI Identifier:
1511397
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC02-05CH11231; FC02-07ER64494
Resource Type:
Journal Article: Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Biotechnology for Biofuels
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 7; Journal ID: ISSN 1754-6834
Publisher:
BioMed Central
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
09 BIOMASS FUELS; AFEX; dilute acid; ionic liquid; pretreatment; enzymatic hydrolysis; cellulosic ethanol

Citation Formats

Uppugundla, Nirmal, da Costa Sousa, Leonardo, Chundawat, Shishir P. S., Yu, Xiurong, Simmons, Blake, Singh, Seema, Gao, Xiadi, Kumar, Rajeev, Wyman, Charles E., Dale, Bruce E., and Balan, Venkatesh. A comparative study of ethanol production using dilute acid, ionic liquid and AFEX™ pretreated corn stover. United States: N. p., 2014. Web. doi:10.1186/1754-6834-7-72.
Uppugundla, Nirmal, da Costa Sousa, Leonardo, Chundawat, Shishir P. S., Yu, Xiurong, Simmons, Blake, Singh, Seema, Gao, Xiadi, Kumar, Rajeev, Wyman, Charles E., Dale, Bruce E., & Balan, Venkatesh. A comparative study of ethanol production using dilute acid, ionic liquid and AFEX™ pretreated corn stover. United States. https://doi.org/10.1186/1754-6834-7-72
Uppugundla, Nirmal, da Costa Sousa, Leonardo, Chundawat, Shishir P. S., Yu, Xiurong, Simmons, Blake, Singh, Seema, Gao, Xiadi, Kumar, Rajeev, Wyman, Charles E., Dale, Bruce E., and Balan, Venkatesh. 2014. "A comparative study of ethanol production using dilute acid, ionic liquid and AFEX™ pretreated corn stover". United States. https://doi.org/10.1186/1754-6834-7-72. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1511397.
@article{osti_1511397,
title = {A comparative study of ethanol production using dilute acid, ionic liquid and AFEX™ pretreated corn stover},
author = {Uppugundla, Nirmal and da Costa Sousa, Leonardo and Chundawat, Shishir P. S. and Yu, Xiurong and Simmons, Blake and Singh, Seema and Gao, Xiadi and Kumar, Rajeev and Wyman, Charles E. and Dale, Bruce E. and Balan, Venkatesh},
abstractNote = {In a biorefinery producing cellulosic biofuels, biomass pretreatment will significantly influence the efficacy of enzymatic hydrolysis and microbial fermentation. Comparison of different biomass pretreatment techniques by studying the impact of pretreatment on downstream operations at industrially relevant conditions and performing comprehensive mass balances will help focus attention on necessary process improvements, and thereby help reduce the cost of biofuel production. An on-going collaboration between the three US Department of Energy (DOE) funded bioenergy research centers (Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC), Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) and BioEnergy Science Center (BESC)) has given us a unique opportunity to compare the performance of three pretreatment processes, notably dilute acid (DA), ionic liquid (IL) and ammonia fiber expansion (AFEXTM), using the same source of corn stover. Separate hydrolysis and fermentation (SHF) was carried out using various combinations of commercially available enzymes and engineered yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae 424A) strain. The optimal commercial enzyme combination (Ctec2: Htec2: Multifect Pectinase, percentage total protein loading basis) was evaluated for each pretreatment with a microplate-based assay using milled pretreated solids at 0.2% glucan loading and 15 mg total protein loading/g of glucan. The best enzyme combinations were 67:33:0 for DA, 39:33:28 for IL and 67:17:17 for AFEX. The amounts of sugar (kg) (glucose: xylose: total gluco- and xylo-oligomers) per 100 kg of untreated corn stover produced after 72 hours of 6% glucan loading enzymatic hydrolysis were: DA (25:2:2), IL (31:15:2) and AFEX (26:13:7). Additionally, the amounts of ethanol (kg) produced per 100 kg of untreated corn stover and the respective ethanol metabolic yield (%) achieved with exogenous nutrient supplemented fermentations were: DA (14.0, 92.0%), IL (21.2, 93.0%) and AFEX (20.5, 95.0%), respectively. The reason for lower ethanol yield for DA is because most of the xylose produced during the pretreatment was removed and not converted to ethanol during fermentation. Compositional analysis of the pretreated biomass solids showed no significant change in composition for AFEX treated corn stover, while about 85% of hemicellulose was solubilized after DA pretreatment, and about 90% of lignin was removed after IL pretreatment. As expected, the optimal commercial enzyme combination was different for the solids prepared by different pretreatment technologies. Due to loss of nutrients during the pretreatment and washing steps, DA and IL pretreated hydrolysates required exogenous nutrient supplementation to ferment glucose and xylose efficiently, while AFEX pretreated hydrolysate did not require nutrient supplementation.},
doi = {10.1186/1754-6834-7-72},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1511397}, journal = {Biotechnology for Biofuels},
issn = {1754-6834},
number = ,
volume = 7,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue May 13 00:00:00 EDT 2014},
month = {Tue May 13 00:00:00 EDT 2014}
}

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Free Publicly Available Full Text
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Cited by: 163 works
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Figures / Tables:

Table 1 Table 1: Pretreatment conditions used to pretreat biomass using different methods

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Ionic liquid-mediated selective extraction of lignin from wood leading to enhanced enzymatic cellulose hydrolysis
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Deconstruction of Lignocellulosic Biomass to Fuels and Chemicals
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Process and technoeconomic analysis of leading pretreatment technologies for lignocellulosic ethanol production using switchgrass
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Inhibition of cellulase, xylanase and β-glucosidase activities by softwood lignin preparations
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Physical and chemical characterizations of corn stover and poplar solids resulting from leading pretreatment technologies
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A facile method for the recovery of ionic liquid and lignin from biomass pretreatment
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Fermentation of pretreated sugarcane bagasse hemicellulose hydrolysate to ethanol by Pachysolen tannophilus
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Shear Deactivation of Cellulase, Exoglucanase, Endoglucanase, and β-Glucosidase in a Mechanically Agitated Reactor
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Comparative material balances around pretreatment technologies for the conversion of switchgrass to soluble sugars
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Influence of physico-chemical changes on enzymatic digestibility of ionic liquid and AFEX pretreated corn stover
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Figures/Tables have been extracted from DOE-funded journal article accepted manuscripts.