Evaluation of pre-treatment and modeling of enzymatic hydrolysis of sugar cane bagasse for ethanol production

• Grant number: 07/01525-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: August 01, 2007
• End date: March 31, 2010
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Chemistry
• Principal Investigator: Aline Carvalho da Costa
• Grantee: Sarita Candida Rabelo
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Engenharia Química (FEQ). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Nowadays the raw material used for ethanol production is sugar cane sacarose. In Brazil, the availability of bagasse with low costs makes the development of technologies to hydrolyse this material and use it for the production of ethanol attractive, due to the possibility of integration with sugar plants and distilleries, using the existing infrastructure. If bagasse is used, a significant increase in ethanol production can be obtained without increasing the planted area, besides being possible to diminish the production costs.During decades the efficient hydrolysis of lignocellulosic material and the posterior fermentation of the resulting sugars have been a great challenge. The most known routes are the acid and enzymatic hydrolysis. Although the acid hydrolysis is efficient and relatively cheap, it generates pollutant residues and products that inhibit the posterior fermentation. Besides, they tend to degrade glucose and generate toxic side products. Therefore, the enzymatic saccharification has been object of most of the studies, although this process is still economically impracticable, what strengthens the necessity of researches on the subject.The objective of this project is to study the production of ethanol by enzymatic hydrolysis of sugar cane bagasse. Experiments will be carried out to compare two pretreatments that occur in mild conditions of temperature and pressure and in the absence of acids (alkaline hydrogen peroxide and calcium hydroxide). Experiments will also be performed to determinate the minimum enzymatic load that provides high hydrolysis yield. The viability of using bagasse without sieving, as available in the plants, will also be assessed. After the determination of the best pretreatment and the minimum enzymatic load, fermentation of the hydrolyzed obtained in the best conditions will be carried out of for the determination of the ethanol yield. Then, a kinetic model for enzymatic hydrolysis will be determined. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

RABELO, SARITA C.; ANDRADE, RAFAEL R.; MACIEL FILHO, RUBENS; COSTA, ALINE C.. Alkaline hydrogen peroxide pretreatment, enzymatic hydrolysis and fermentation of sugarcane bagasse to ethanol. FUEL, v. 136, p. 349-357, NOV 15 2014. (07/01525-9)

RABELO, SARITA C.; MACIEL FILHO, RUBENS; COSTA, ALINE C.. Lime Pretreatment and Fermentation of Enzymatically Hydrolyzed Sugarcane Bagasse. Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology, v. 169, n. 5, p. 1696-1712, MAR 2013. (07/01525-9)

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

RABELO, Sarita Candida. Evaluation and optimization of pretreatments and enzymatic hydrolysis of the sugarcane bagasse for second generation ethanol production. 2010. Doctoral Thesis - Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Faculdade de Engenharia Química Campinas, SP.