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Title: A Chemical-Free Pretreatment for Biosynthesis of Bioethanol and Lipids from Lignocellulosic Biomass: An Industrially Relevant 2G Biorefinery Approach

Abstract

A wide range of inorganic and organic chemicals are used during the pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass to produce biofuels. Developing an industrially relevant 2G biorefinery process using such chemicals is challenging and requires more unit operations for downstream processing. A sustainable process has been developed to achieve industrially relevant titers of bioethanol with significant ethanol yield. The pretreatment of sorghum biomass was performed by a continuous pilot-scale hydrothermal reactor followed by disk milling. Enzymatic hydrolysis was performed without washing the pretreated biomass. Moreover, citrate buffer strength was reduced to 100-fold (50 mM to 0.5 mM) during the enzymatic hydrolysis. Enzymatic hydrolysis at 0.5 mM citrate buffer strength showed that significant sugar concentrations of 222 ± 2.3 to 241 ± 2.3 g/L (glucose + xylose) were attained at higher solids loadings of 50 to 60% (w/v). Furthermore, hydrolysates were fermented to produce bioethanol using two different xylose-fermenting Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains and a co-culture of xylose-fermenting and non-GMO yeast cultures. Bioethanol titer of 81.7 g/L was achieved with an ethanol yield of 0.48 gp/gs. Additionally, lipids were produced using the oleaginous yeast Rhodosporidium toruloides, yielding 13.2 g/L lipids with cellular lipid accumulation of 38.5% w/w from 100 g/L ofmore » sugar concentration. In summary, reducing the strength of the citrate buffer during enzymatic hydrolysis and omitting inorganic chemicals from the pretreatment process enhances the fermentability of hydrolysates and can also reduce operating costs.« less

Authors:
; ; ; ; ORCiD logo
Publication Date:
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
OSTI Identifier:
1906403
Grant/Contract Number:  
SC0018420
Resource Type:
Published Article
Journal Name:
Fermentation
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Name: Fermentation Journal Volume: 9 Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 2311-5637
Publisher:
MDPI AG
Country of Publication:
Switzerland
Language:
English

Citation Formats

Deshavath, Narendra Naik, Dien, Bruce S., Slininger, Patricia J., Jin, Yong-Su, and Singh, Vijay. A Chemical-Free Pretreatment for Biosynthesis of Bioethanol and Lipids from Lignocellulosic Biomass: An Industrially Relevant 2G Biorefinery Approach. Switzerland: N. p., 2022. Web. doi:10.3390/fermentation9010005.
Deshavath, Narendra Naik, Dien, Bruce S., Slininger, Patricia J., Jin, Yong-Su, & Singh, Vijay. A Chemical-Free Pretreatment for Biosynthesis of Bioethanol and Lipids from Lignocellulosic Biomass: An Industrially Relevant 2G Biorefinery Approach. Switzerland. https://doi.org/10.3390/fermentation9010005
Deshavath, Narendra Naik, Dien, Bruce S., Slininger, Patricia J., Jin, Yong-Su, and Singh, Vijay. Wed . "A Chemical-Free Pretreatment for Biosynthesis of Bioethanol and Lipids from Lignocellulosic Biomass: An Industrially Relevant 2G Biorefinery Approach". Switzerland. https://doi.org/10.3390/fermentation9010005.
@article{osti_1906403,
title = {A Chemical-Free Pretreatment for Biosynthesis of Bioethanol and Lipids from Lignocellulosic Biomass: An Industrially Relevant 2G Biorefinery Approach},
author = {Deshavath, Narendra Naik and Dien, Bruce S. and Slininger, Patricia J. and Jin, Yong-Su and Singh, Vijay},
abstractNote = {A wide range of inorganic and organic chemicals are used during the pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass to produce biofuels. Developing an industrially relevant 2G biorefinery process using such chemicals is challenging and requires more unit operations for downstream processing. A sustainable process has been developed to achieve industrially relevant titers of bioethanol with significant ethanol yield. The pretreatment of sorghum biomass was performed by a continuous pilot-scale hydrothermal reactor followed by disk milling. Enzymatic hydrolysis was performed without washing the pretreated biomass. Moreover, citrate buffer strength was reduced to 100-fold (50 mM to 0.5 mM) during the enzymatic hydrolysis. Enzymatic hydrolysis at 0.5 mM citrate buffer strength showed that significant sugar concentrations of 222 ± 2.3 to 241 ± 2.3 g/L (glucose + xylose) were attained at higher solids loadings of 50 to 60% (w/v). Furthermore, hydrolysates were fermented to produce bioethanol using two different xylose-fermenting Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains and a co-culture of xylose-fermenting and non-GMO yeast cultures. Bioethanol titer of 81.7 g/L was achieved with an ethanol yield of 0.48 gp/gs. Additionally, lipids were produced using the oleaginous yeast Rhodosporidium toruloides, yielding 13.2 g/L lipids with cellular lipid accumulation of 38.5% w/w from 100 g/L of sugar concentration. In summary, reducing the strength of the citrate buffer during enzymatic hydrolysis and omitting inorganic chemicals from the pretreatment process enhances the fermentability of hydrolysates and can also reduce operating costs.},
doi = {10.3390/fermentation9010005},
journal = {Fermentation},
number = 1,
volume = 9,
place = {Switzerland},
year = {Wed Dec 21 00:00:00 EST 2022},
month = {Wed Dec 21 00:00:00 EST 2022}
}

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