Improvement of Ethanol Production from Spruce by Solvent Pretreatment

• Lignocelluloses are abundant and inexpensive resources that can be used for production of bioethanol. However, these materials, especially softwoods, are resistant to enzymatic hydrolysis and a pretreatment process is necessary for efficient conversion to ethanol. The pretreatment is intended to render the cellulose amenable to enzymatic hydrolysis and subsequent fermentation to bioethanol. Several methods has been suggested for the pretreatment of lignocelluloses. The pretreatment with cellulose solvents are among the promising methods since they can perform in mild processing conditions. N-Methylmorpholine-N-oxide (NMMO) is among the industrial solvents which can dissolve cellulose by breaking intermolecular interactions. NMMO is nowadays used in the industrial Lyocell process, which is one of the modern and environmentally friendly industrial fiber-making technologies. It does not produce any toxic waste pollutants, and can be recovered over 98%. The pretreatment of lignocellulose by NMMO can modify the crystal structure of cellulose. In the current work a commercial grade 50% (W/W) NMMO solution was used for pretreatment of spruce. The NMMO solution was concentrated by vacuum evaporation to 85% NMMO. The pretreatment performed at 120ºC for 3 h. The pretreated wood species were then regenerated by addition of boiling distilled water, followed by vacuum filtration and washing. The pretreated and untreated spruce species were enzymatically hydrolyzed by commercial cellulase (celluclast 1.5L, Novozyme, Denmark) and Β-glucosidase (Novozyme 188, Novozyme, Denmark) at 45ºC for 96h. A thermotolerant strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae was used for fermentation. Inoculum was aerobically cultivated at 30 °C and 120 rpm for 24 h. The enzymatic hydrolyzate was supplemented with necessary nutrient and fermented by the yeast for 24h at 30 °C and 120 rpm. The liquid samples were analyzed by HPLC. The results showed that the yield of ethanol increased from 7.2 g/g to 77 g/g, when the wood treated with the solvent. Formation of glycerol and other metabolites were also detected and discussed. It can be concluded that the method can be a promising alternative for pretreatment of softwoods for bioethanol production.

Ämnesord

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Materialteknik -- Pappers-, massa- och fiberteknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Materials Engineering -- Paper, Pulp and Fiber Technology (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

bioethanol

spruce

n-methylmorpholine-n-oxide

pretreatment

enzymatic hydrolysis

resource recovery

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