The growth of Chaetomium cellulolyticum on corn stover pretreated with n-butylamine

Summary

A new method using n-butylamine (n-BA) for the pretreatment of lignocellulosics has been studied. The fermentability of corn stover treated with n-BA using Chaetomium cellulolyticum was improved.

On a feedstock basis of 10 g dry weight/L untreated corn stover, the crude protein concentration from cell mass was increased from 0.8 g/L of culture broth in the case of untreated corn stover to 1.58 g/L in the case of pretreated stover. In the latter case, a cellulose utilization of 88.3% based on the amount of untreated corn stover used was achieved. n-BA has a potential to be used commercially for pretreatment due to its having a lower boiling point than water (which facilitates recovery by distillation and subsequent reagent recycle) and to its relatively high swelling and delignification activities.