Evaluation of support materials for growth of biomass acidogenic anaerobic for production of hydrogen and volatile organic acids from hydrolysis of sugarcane bagasse

• Grant number: 11/21005-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: February 01, 2012
• End date: June 30, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Interdisciplinary Subjects
• Principal Investigator: Gustavo Mockaitis
• Grantee: Bruno Garcia Silva
• Host Institution: Instituto de Física de São Carlos (IFSC). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 09/15984-0 - Bioenergy production from wastewaters and environmental fitting of liquid and solid wastes generated, AP.TEM
• Associated scholarship(s): 12/12120-8 - Effect of iron in meso- thermophilic bioreactors over biohydrogen and organic fat acids production from sugarcane bagasse hydrolysate, BE.EP.IC

Abstract

Among the waste of sugarcane processing to obtain ethanol, the bagasse can be utilized to obtain second generation ethanol from the hydrolyzed of its cellulose fraction. However the hemicellulose fraction present in the bagasse, constituted mostly of pentose, presents difficulties in its fermentation to obtain third generation ethanol. So, the proposal of obtaining value-added products and with energetic potential from the bioprocessing of this waste is an interesting alternative to the disposal of those. In all biological process, the formation of biofilm is a desired condition not just for the obtain optimization of the products of interest, but also for the establishment stability of biomass. In the hydrogen and volatile acids obtain process the search for a support material which favors the biofilm formation to stimulate the presence of the forming communities of interest biotransformed products while inhibiting the colonization consortia that may consume these products maybe a preponderant factor enabling this process. Among the interest variables, can considered that both the immobilization matrix material, its geometry and its disposition in the bioreactor are important study objects, since the material may be related in the biofilm formation, fixation and maintenance, while the geometry and disposition of the material are connected to the mass transfer phenomenon and to the hydrodynamic regime of which the bioreactor is submitted. So, the present project of scientific initiation is inserted to elucidate some transformation and maintenance phenomenon of an acidogenic biofilm, to maximize volatile acid and hydrogen production in the anaerobic bioprocessing of hydrolyzed bagasse of sugarcane, varying support material, geometry and arrangement. (AU)