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Improving cellulosic ethanol fermentation efficiency by converting endogenous water-soluble carbohydrates into citric acid before pretreatment

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Abstract

Water-soluble carbohydrates in raw lignocellulosic biomass are converted into hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) in the acid-based pretreatment, thus increasing the detoxification intensity and reducing the fermentation efficiency of cellulosic ethanol. Therefore, reducing water-soluble carbohydrates in raw corn stover is crucially important to reduce the inhibitors’ generation and improve the ethanol fermentation efficiency. In this study, aerobic solid-state fermentation of corn stover by inoculating Aspergillus niger spores converted 83% of the endogenous water-soluble carbohydrates into citric acid, leading to the decrease of 41% of HMF generation and 8% of sulfuric acid usage during the dry acid pretreatment. The reduced inhibitor generation improved the ethanol fermentability by 11% more ethanol than that of the corn stover without water-soluble carbohydrates’ removal. This suggests that the removal of the water-soluble carbohydrates before pretreatment significantly reduced the inhibitors’ generation in pretreatment and improved the fermentation efficiency of cellulosic ethanol.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2018M632043), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China (WF1814033), and the Open Funding Project of the Key Laboratory of Development and Application of Rural Renewable Energy.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Bioreactor Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, 130 Meilong Road, Shanghai, 200237, China

    Weitao Dong, Xushen Han, Gang Liu & Jie Bao

  2. Key Laboratory of Development and Application of Rural Renewable Energy, Ministry of Agriculture, Biogas Institute of Ministry of Agriculture, Chengdu, 610041, China

    Gang Liu

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  1. Weitao Dong
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  2. Xushen Han
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  3. Gang Liu
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  4. Jie Bao
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Correspondence to Gang Liu or Jie Bao.

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Dong, W., Han, X., Liu, G. et al. Improving cellulosic ethanol fermentation efficiency by converting endogenous water-soluble carbohydrates into citric acid before pretreatment. Bioprocess Biosyst Eng 42, 1099–1103 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-019-02107-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-019-02107-8

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