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Detoxification and concentration of corn stover hydrolysate and its fermentation for ethanol production

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Abstract

Environmental and energy concerns have increased interest in renewable energy sources, particularly biofuels. Thus the fermentation of glucose from sulfuric acid-hydrolyzed corn stover for the production of bioethanol has been explored using a combined acid retardation and continuous-effect membrane distillation treatment process. This process resulted in the separation of the sugars and acids from the acid-catalyzed hydrolysate, the removal of most of the fermentation inhibitors from the hydrolysate and the concentration of the detoxified hydrolysate. The recovery rate of glucose from the sugar-acid mixture using acid retardation was greater than 99.12% and the sulfuric acid was completely recovered from the hydrolysate. When the treated corn stover hydrolysate, containing 100 g/L glucose, was used as a carbon source, 43.06 g/L of ethanol was produced with a productivity of 1.79 g/(L∙h) and a yield of 86.31%. In the control experiment, where glucose was used as the carbon source these values were 1.97 g/(L∙h) and 93.10% respectively. Thus the integration of acid retardation and a continuous-effect membrane distillation process are effective for the production of fuel ethanol from corn stover.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 21376175).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300072, China

    Qing Li, Yingjie Qin, Yunfei Liu, Jianjun Liu, Qing Liu & Pingli Li

  2. Chembrane Engineering & Technology, Inc., Tianjin, 300308, China

    Yingjie Qin & Liqiang Liu

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  1. Qing Li
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Correspondence to Yingjie Qin.

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Li, Q., Qin, Y., Liu, Y. et al. Detoxification and concentration of corn stover hydrolysate and its fermentation for ethanol production. Front. Chem. Sci. Eng. 13, 140–151 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11705-018-1714-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11705-018-1714-y

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