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Biorefining of wood: combined production of ethanol and xylanase from waste fiber sludge

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Journal of Industrial Microbiology & Biotechnology

Abstract

The possibility to utilize fiber sludge, waste fibers from pulp mills and lignocellulose-based biorefineries, for combined production of liquid biofuel and biocatalysts was investigated. Without pretreatment, fiber sludge was hydrolyzed enzymatically to monosaccharides, mainly glucose and xylose. In the first of two sequential fermentation steps, the fiber sludge hydrolysate was fermented to cellulosic ethanol with the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Although the final ethanol yields were similar, the ethanol productivity after 9.5 h was 3.3 g/l/h for the fiber sludge hydrolysate compared with only 2.2 g/l/h for a reference fermentation with similar sugar content. In the second fermentation step, the spent fiber sludge hydrolysate (the stillage obtained after distillation) was used as growth medium for recombinant Aspergillus niger expressing the xylanase-encoding Trichoderma reesei (Hypocrea jecorina) xyn2 gene. The xylanase activity obtained with the spent fiber sludge hydrolysate (8,500 nkat/ml) was higher than that obtained in a standard medium with similar monosaccharide content (1,400 nkat/ml). Analyses based on deglycosylation with N-glycosidase F suggest that the main part of the recombinant xylanase was unglycosylated and had molecular mass of 20.7 kDa, while a minor part had N-linked glycosylation and molecular mass of 23.6 kDa. Chemical analyses of the growth medium showed that important carbon sources in the spent fiber sludge hydrolysate included xylose, small aliphatic acids, and oligosaccharides. The results show the potential of converting waste fiber sludge to liquid biofuel and enzymes as coproducts in lignocellulose-based biorefineries.

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Acknowledgments

The assistance of Marcus Jonsson in performing preliminary experiments is gratefully acknowledged. One of the authors (A.C.) was supported by SEKAB E-Technology (Örnsköldsvik, Sweden) through the Umeå University Industrial Post Graduate School. The research received financial support from the Kempe Foundations, the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, the Biorefinery of the Future (www.bioraffinaderi.se), and the Bio4Energy research initiative (www.bio4energy.se).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, Umeå University, SE-901 87, Umeå, Sweden

    Adnan Cavka & Leif J. Jönsson

  2. Processum Biorefinery Initiative AB, SE-891 80, Örnsköldsvik, Sweden

    Björn Alriksson

  3. Department of Microbiology, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, 7602, South Africa

    Shaunita H. Rose & Willem H. van Zyl

Authors
  1. Adnan Cavka
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  2. Björn Alriksson
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  3. Shaunita H. Rose
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  4. Willem H. van Zyl
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  5. Leif J. Jönsson
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Correspondence to Adnan Cavka.

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Cavka, A., Alriksson, B., Rose, S.H. et al. Biorefining of wood: combined production of ethanol and xylanase from waste fiber sludge. J Ind Microbiol Biotechnol 38, 891–899 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10295-010-0856-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10295-010-0856-9

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