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Continuous co-production of ethanol and xylitol from rice straw hydrolysate in a membrane bioreactor

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Abstract

The present study was set to develop a robust and economic biorefinery process for continuous co-production of ethanol and xylitol from rice straw in a membrane bioreactor. Acid pretreatment, enzymatic hydrolysis, detoxification, yeast strains selection, single and co-culture batch fermentation, and finally continuous co-fermentation were optimized. The combination of diluted acid pretreatment (3.5 %) and enzymatic conversion (1:10 enzyme (63 floating-point unit (FPU)/mL)/biomass ratio) resulted in the maximum sugar yield (81 % conversion). By concentrating the hydrolysates, sugars level increased by threefold while that of furfural reduced by 50 % (0.56 to 0.28 g/L). Combined application of active carbon and resin led to complete removal of furfural, hydroxyl methyl furfural, and acetic acid. The strains Saccharomyces cerevisiae NCIM 3090 with 66.4 g/L ethanol production and Candida tropicalis NCIM 3119 with 9.9 g/L xylitol production were selected. The maximum concentrations of ethanol and xylitol in the single cultures were recorded at 31.5 g/L (0.42 g/g yield) and 26.5 g/L (0.58 g/g yield), respectively. In the batch co-culture system, the ethanol and xylitol productions were 33.4 g/L (0.44 g/g yield) and 25.1 g/L (0.55 g/g yield), respectively. The maximum ethanol and xylitol volumetric productivity values in the batch co-culture system were 65 and 58 % after 25 and 60 h, but were improved in the continuous co-culture mode and reached 80 % (55 g/L) and 68 % (31 g/L) at the dilution rate of 0.03 L per hour, respectively. Hence, the continuous co-production strategy developed in this study could be recommended for producing value-added products from this hugely generated lignocellulosic waste.

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Acknowledgments

This project was financially supported by Agricultural Biotechnology Research Institute of Iran (Grant Number: 2-05-05-9009). We would like to thank all our colleagues in the Microbial Biotechnology and Biosafety Department of ABRII for their kind support and assistance during the course of this investigation.

Conflicts of interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Microbial Biotechnology and Biosafety Department, Agricultural Biotechnology Research Institute of Iran (ABRII), SPII Campus, Mahdasht Road, Karaj, P.O. Box: 31535-1897, Iran

    Omid Zahed, Gholamreza Salehi Jouzani, Saeed Abbasalizadeh & Meisam Tabatabaei

  2. Department of Food Science, Engineering and Technology, Faculty of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran

    Omid Zahed & Faramarz Khodaiyan

  3. Biofuel Research Team (BRTeam), Karaj, Iran

    Meisam Tabatabaei

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  1. Omid Zahed
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  2. Gholamreza Salehi Jouzani
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Correspondence to Gholamreza Salehi Jouzani.

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Zahed, O., Jouzani, G.S., Abbasalizadeh, S. et al. Continuous co-production of ethanol and xylitol from rice straw hydrolysate in a membrane bioreactor. Folia Microbiol 61, 179–189 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12223-015-0420-0

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