Development of a mathematical model for the simultaneous saccharification and fermentation of cellulose with Thermomonosopora fusca YX cellulases and Clostridium thermohydrosulfuricum

Thesis/Dissertation · Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1984

OSTI ID:6186760

Slaff, G F

Producing ethanol from renewable biomass is one of the main processes being investigated as a possible alternative to the high cost and limited supply of crude oil. This process requires four steps: 1) pretreatment of the biomass, 2) enzymatic breakdown of the cellulose into soluble sugars, 3) fermentation of these sugars into alcohol, and 4) alcohol recovery. One possible method to alleviate the problem of low rates of hydrolysis due to end-product inhibition of the enzymes is to perform the saccharification and fermentation simultaneously in the same vessel. Such a process is called a simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF). The goal of this work was to investigate, both experimentally and theoretically, a SSF system utilizing Thermomonospora enzymes as the cellulose hydrolysis agent and Clostridium thermohydrosulfuricum as the fermenting organism. A model was developed which predicted the cellobiose and glucose concentrations during Avicel hydrolysis at 65/sup 0/C. Cellobiose, a hydrolysis end-product, was found to non-competitively inhibit the cellulases. A model which generally predicted the soluble sugar and fermentation products level was developed by combining the Avicel hydrolysis and cellobiose/growth models. This model was used to simulate a continous SSF system and investigate the effect of various parameters on ethanol productivity on such a system.

• OSTI ID: 6186760
• Resource Relation: Other Information: Thesis (Ph. D.)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

09 BIOMASS FUELS
BIOMASS
FERMENTATION
ETHANOL
BIOSYNTHESIS
CELLULOSE
ENZYMES
HYDROLYSIS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
SACCHARIFICATION
ALCOHOLS
BIOCONVERSION
CARBOHYDRATES
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
DECOMPOSITION
ENERGY SOURCES
HYDROXY COMPOUNDS
LYSIS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
POLYSACCHARIDES
RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES
SACCHARIDES
SOLVOLYSIS
SYNTHESIS
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