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Alkaline-sulfite pretreatment and use of surfactants during enzymatic hydrolysis to enhance ethanol production from sugarcane bagasse

Bioprocess and Biosystems Engineering volume 39, pages 441–448 (2016)Cite this article

Abstract

Sugarcane bagasse is a by-product from the sugar and ethanol industry which contains approximately 70 % of its dry mass composed by polysaccharides. To convert these polysaccharides into fuel ethanol it is necessary a pretreatment step to increase the enzymatic digestibility of the recalcitrant raw material. In this work, sugarcane bagasse was pretreated by an alkaline-sulfite chemithermomechanical process for increasing its enzymatic digestibility. Na2SO3 and NaOH ratios were fixed at 2:1, and three increasing chemical loads, varying from 4 to 8 % m/m Na2SO3, were used to prepare the pretreated materials. The increase in the alkaline-sulfite load decreased the lignin content in the pretreated material up to 35.5 % at the highest chemical load. The pretreated samples presented enhanced glucose yields during enzymatic hydrolysis as a function of the pretreatment severity. The maximum glucose yield (64 %) was observed for the samples pretreated with the highest chemical load. The use of 2.5 g l−1 Tween 20 in the hydrolysis step further increased the glucose yield to 75 %. Semi-simultaneous hydrolysis and fermentation of the pretreated materials indicated that the ethanol yield was also enhanced as a function of the pretreatment severity. The maximum ethanol yield was 56 ± 2 % for the sample pretreated with the highest chemical load. For the sample pretreated with the lowest chemical load (2 % m/m NaOH and 4 % m/m Na2SO3), adding Tween 20 during the hydrolysis process increased the ethanol yield from 25 ± 3 to 39.5 ± 1 %.

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Acknowledgements

The technical assistance of JS Canilha, JM Silva, and JC Tavares is acknowledged. This research was supported by CNPq (Process 480116/2010-5) and FAPESP (2008/56256-5, 2014/06923-6). JF Mesquita thanks CNPq and FAPEMIG for the student fellowships.

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Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Química, Biotecnologia e Engenharia de Bioprocessos, Campus Alto Paraopeba, Universidade Federal de São João Del-Rei, CP 131, Ouro Branco, MG, 36420-000, Brazil

    Jéssica Faria Mesquita & André Aguiar

  2. Departamento de Biotecnologia, Escola de Engenharia de Lorena, Universidade de São Paulo, Lorena, SP, 12602-810, Brazil

    André Ferraz

  3. Instituto de Recursos Naturais, Universidade Federal de Itajubá, CP 50, Itajubá, MG, 37500-903, Brazil

    André Aguiar

Authors
  1. Jéssica Faria Mesquita
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  2. André Ferraz
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  3. André Aguiar
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Correspondence to André Aguiar.

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Mesquita, J.F., Ferraz, A. & Aguiar, A. Alkaline-sulfite pretreatment and use of surfactants during enzymatic hydrolysis to enhance ethanol production from sugarcane bagasse. Bioprocess Biosyst Eng 39, 441–448 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-015-1527-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-015-1527-z

Keywords

  • Semi-simultaneous hydrolysis and fermentation
  • Tween 20
  • Cellulose
  • Ethanol
  • Lignin