Ethanol Production

Carbon sources: Starch

Ethanol Production
Carbon sources: Cellulosic material Hemicellulosic material Lignocellulosic material

Ethanol Production
Generations of Ethanol Production: First generation technologies (Starch Ethanol) Made from sugar, starch or vegetable oil This is a well-known process and is presently used for production of bioethanol in many parts of the world However, the feedstock costs are high and still rising due to rising demand for both food and fuel, limited area of cultivation and bad harvests. The ethical question of using food for fuel has become more and more relevant and thus the sustainability of first generation bioethanol production is questioned.

Ethanol Production
Generations of Ethanol Production: Second generation technologies (Lignocellulosic Ethanol) Produced from sustainable feedstock Lignocellulose is a complex molecule consisting of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin. The complexity of the lignocellulosic biomass makes it difficult to utilize lignocellulose compared to starchy biomass. This difficulty is overcome by introducing an additional step to the production strategy: pretreatment. Most often the pretreatment is a thermo-chemical treatment of the biomass, making the glucose containing polymer, i.e. cellulose, susceptible to enzymatic hydrolysis. Afterwards, the sugar released during the pretreatment and the enzymatic hydrolysis is then fermented to ethanol.

Ethanol Production
Generations of Ethanol Production: Third generation technologies (Algae Ethanol) Produced from algae

Ethanol Production
Production by starch:
Starch Liquefaction

Add Enzymes
Saccharification

Purification

Glucose syrup
Fermentation
Distillation Ethanol

Microorganism

Ethanol Production
Lignocellulosic raw material: The major component of lignocellulose materials is cellulose, along with lignin and hemicellulose.

Ethanol Production

Ethanol Production

Ethanol Production

Ethanol Production

Ethanol Production
Identify the advanced process options and technology for ethanol production from biomass

Bio-Ethanol : Potential Source of Energy and Chemical Products

The environmental problems caused by the continued and increasing use of fossil feedstocks as energy source and the fact that the supply of many of their more desirable embodiments is approaching exhaustion are two main problems associated with the utilization of fossil fuels. Industrially used microorganisms are selected to provide the best possible combination of characteristics for the process and equipment being used. The desired characteristics of an industrial ethanol process are highly dependent upon the choice of organism used in the fermentation. Organisms should have: a high yield of product per unit substrate assimilated, a high fermentation ability, substantial ethanol tolerance, the ability to remain viable at higher temperatures, stability under adequate fermentation conditions, a tolerance to low pH values.

Ethanol Production
Biocatalyst development for ethanol production Biocatalyst: An enzyme or enzyme complex consisting of, or derived from, an organism or cell culture (in cell-free or whole-cell forms) that catalyses metabolic reactions in living organisms and/or substrate conversions in various chemical reactions.

Appl Microbiol Biotechnol. 2011 Aug;91(3):529-42. doi: 10.1007/s00253-011-3261-z. Epub 2011 Apr 26. A whole cell biocatalyst for cellulosic ethanol production from dilute acid-pretreated corn stover hydrolyzates. Ryu S, Karim MN. Department of Chemical Engineering, Texas Tech University, 6th and Canton St., Lubbock, TX 79409, USA. Abstract In this research, a recombinant whole cell biocatalyst was developed by expressing three cellulases from Clostridium cellulolyticum--endoglucanase (Cel5A), exoglucanase (Cel9E), and -glucosidase--on the surface of the Escherichia coli LY01. The modified strain is identified as LY01/pRE1H-AEB. The cellulases were displayed on the surface of the cell by fusing with an anchor protein, PgsA. The developed whole cell biocatalyst was used for single-step ethanol fermentation using the phosphoric acid-swollen cellulose (PASC) and the dilute acid-pretreated corn stover. Ethanol production was 3.59 0.15 g/L using 10 g/L of PASC, which corresponds to a theoretical yield of 95.4 0.15%. Ethanol production was 0.30 0.02 g/L when 1 g/L equivalent of glucose in the cellulosic fraction of the dilute sulfuric acid-pretreated corn stover (PCS) was fermented for 84 h. A total of 0.71 0.12 g/L ethanol was produced in 48 h when the PCS was fermented in the simultaneous saccharification and co-fermentation mode using the hemicellulosic (1 g/L of total soluble sugar) and as well as the cellulosic (1 g/L of glucose equivalent) parts of PCS. In a control experiment, 0.48 g/L ethanol was obtained from 1 g/L of hemicellulosic PCS. It was concluded that the whole cell biocatalyst could convert both cellulosic and hemicellulosic substrates into ethanol in a single reactor. The developed C. cellulolyticum-E. coli whole cell biocatalyst also overcame the incompatible temperature problem of the frequently reported fungal-yeast systems.

Enzyme Microb Technol. 2012 Jan 5;50(1):35-42. doi: 10.1016/j.enzmictec.2011.09.005. Epub 2011 Sep 21. An innovative biocatalyst for production of ethanol from xylose in a continuous bioreactor. Silva CR, Zangirolami TC, Rodrigues JP, Matugi K, Giordano RC, Giordano RL. Department of Chemical Engineering, Federal University of So Carlos (UFSCar), via Washington Luiz, Km 235, Monjolinho,13565-905, So Carlos, SP, Brazil. Abstract The use of the hemicellulose fraction of biomass may be important for the feasibility of the production of second generation bioethanol. Wild strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae are widely used in industry for production of 1st generation ethanol, and the robustness of this yeast is an important advantage in large scale applications. Isomerization of xylose to xylulose is an essential step in this process. This reaction is catalyzed by glucose isomerase (GI). A new biocatalyst is presented here for the simultaneous isomerization and fermentation (SIF) of xylose. GI from Streptomyces rubiginosus was immobilized in chitosan, through crosslinking with glutaraldehyde, and the support containing the immobilized GI (IGICh) was co-immobilized with S. cerevisiae, in calcium alginate gel. The immobilization experiments led to high immobilized protein loads (30-68 mg g(support)(-1)), high yields (circa of 100%) and high recovered enzyme activity (>90%). The IGI-Ch derivative with maximum activity presented 1700 IU g(catalyst)(-1), almost twice the activity of a commercial immobilized GI, GENSWEET() IGI-HF. At typical operational conditions for xylose SIF operation (pH 5, 30-35 C, presence of nutrients and ethanol concentrations in the medium up to 70 L(-1)), both derivatives, IGI-Ch and GENSWEET() IGI-HF retained app. 90% of the initial activity after 120 h, while soluble GI was almost completely inactive at pH 5, 30 C. The isomerization xylose/xylulose, catalyzed by IGI-Ch, reached the equilibrium in batch experiments after 4h, with 12,000 IU L(-1) (7 g(der) L(-1)), at pH 5 and 30 C, in the presence of fermentation nutrients. After co-immobilization of IGI-Ch with yeast in alginate gel, this biocatalyst succeeded in producing 12 g L(-1) of ethanol, 9.5 g L(-1) of xylitol, 2.5 g L(-1) of glycerol and 1.9 g L(-1) of acetate after consumption of 50 g L(-1) of xylose, in 48 h, using 32.5 10(3) IU L(-1) and 20 g(yeast) L(-1), at 35 C and initial pH 5.3.