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Title: SO2-CATALYSED STEAM EXPLOSION OF CORN FIBRE FOR ETHANOL PRODUCTION

Author
item BURA, R - UNIV BRITISH COLUMBIA
item MANSFIELD, S - UNIV BRITISH COLUMBIA
item SADDLER, J - UNIV BRITISH COLUMBIA
item Bothast, Rodney

Submitted to: Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/11/2002
Publication Date: 3/1/2002
Citation: BURA, R., MANSFIELD, S.D., SADDLER, J.N., BOTHAST, R.J. SO2-CATALYZED STEAM EXPLOSION OF CORN FIBER FOR ETHANOL PRODUCTION. JOURNAL OF APPLIED BIOCHEMISTRY AND BIOTECHNOLOGY. 2002. V. 98-100. P. 59-72.

Interpretive Summary: Last year, over 1.6 billion gallons of fuel ethanol were produced from 600 plus million bushels of corn. Ethanol demand is expected to more than double in the next few years with the phase out of MTBE (methyl tertiary butyl ether) as a fuel oxygenate. In order to improve the yield of ethanol from a bushel of corn and to add value to animal feed coproducts, our research is focused on developing bioprocesses for the conversion of corn fiber to ethanol. Specifically, in this collaborative research with scientists at the University of British Columbia, we used a sequential steam explosion-enzymatic hydrolysis process to convert corn fiber to sugars, which was followed by fermentations with near theoretical yields of ethanol. Conversion of corn fiber has the potential to enhance ethanol yield from a bushel of corn by 10%.

Technical Abstract: Corn fibre, a by-product from the corn wet milling industry, represents a renewable resource that is readily available in significant quantities and could potentially serve as a low cost feedstock for the production of fuel-grade alcohol. In this study, we used a batch reactor to steam explode corn fibre at various degrees of severity to evaluate the potential lof using this feedstock in the bioconversion process. The results indicated that maximum sugar yields (soluble and following enzymatic hydrolysis) were recovered from corn fibre that was pretreated at 190 deg C for 5 minutes with 6% SO2. Sequential SO2-catalysed steam explosion and enzymatic hydrolysis resulted in very high conversion (81%) of all polysaccharides in the corn fibre to monomeric sugars. Subsequently, Saccharomyces cerevisiae was able to convert the resultant corn fibre hydrolyzates to ethanol very efficiently, yielding 90-96% of theoretical conversion during the fermentation process.