Location: Bioenergy Research
Project Number: 5010-41000-189-001-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Aug 1, 2016
End Date: Aug 1, 2021
Objective:
Development of integrated bioprocess that allows for conversion of herbaceous biomass to sugars that are directly fermentable by advanced yeast strains and is suitable for high productivity herbaceous cultivars being developed by ARS and novel plant lines engineered to produce mixed carbon products.
Approach:
Biomass samples will be ground with a hammer mill, exhaustively analyzed for chemical composition, and processed using sequential liquid hot-water and mechanical refining through a disc mill. The resultant hydrolysate will be saccharified to sugars using commercial cellulases and the monosaccharides fermented to ethanol using commercial yeasts designed for production of advanced fuel ethanol. The process will be optimized for pretreatment reaction conditions, enzyme loading, and fermentation parameters. Process yield(s) will be calculated using mass balances formed over the entire process and individual unit operations.
