Ethanol production from rice straw by simultaneous saccharification and fermentation employing a non-conventional stirred reactor

• Grant number: 13/13953-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Effective date (Start): September 01, 2013
• Effective date (End): December 31, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Microbiology - Applied Microbiology
• Principal Investigator: Ines Conceicao Roberto
• Grantee: Rafael Cunha de Assis Castro
• Host Institution: Escola de Engenharia de Lorena (EEL). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Lorena , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 15/20510-9 - Techno-economic assessment of ethanol production from rice straw based on the biochemical biorefinery, BE.EP.DR

Abstract

One of the greatest challenges facing society in the 21st century is to reconcile the growing energy demand for industrial and transport needs with sustainability. The ethanol fuel, which can be obtained from different raw materials by biotechnological processes, has been considered as a possible alternative to petroleum based fuels. Among the materials that can be used for ethanol production, the lignocellulosic biomass should be highlighted, especially agro-industrial residues. Rice straw is one of the most abundant lignocellulosic residues of agricultural activity in the world, each kilogram of harvested cereal is accompanied by the production of 1 to 1.5 kg of straw. Due to their high content of cellulose and hemicellulose, which can be readily hydrolysed to fermentable sugars, this residue is a potential feedstock for fuel ethanol production of second generation. Enzymatic hydrolysis of the cellulose fraction is favored when the product (glucose) is removed from the medium, thereby decreasing the inhibition of cellulases. The simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF), in which glucose released in the hydrolysis can be readily fermented to ethanol, reduces the enzyme inhibition and promote the productivity of the process. However, it should be employed efficiently fermentative microorganisms in the same temperature range of cellulases (45 to 50° C), which limits the use of conventional yeast such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which does not present thermotolerant features. From this context, and in order to contribute to the development of research of ethanol production by SSF, the present work intends to study this process strategy from rice straw under different pre-treatments, employing a thermotolerant yeast previously selected in our laboratories (Kluyveromyces marxianus NRRL Y-6860). With regard to pre-treatment, in addition to the methods widely studied in literature (acid and alkaline), is being proposed the employment of advanced oxidative processes (AOPs), which still not widely used in the literature. In the optimized pretreatment conditions, it will be used a non-conventional reactor, a vertical ball mill (VBM) with glass spheres, in order to combine a physical treatment of biomass with the step of simultaneous saccharification and fermentation. In this step, the SSF will be also evaluated in fed batch configuration, aiming to study the process in higher solid concentration. It is hoped that this reactor configuration will increase the cellulose accessibility to enzymatic hydrolysis, and, therefore, that the fermentative parameters will be improved. In exploratory tests performed with VBM reactor, using dilute-acid pretreated rice straw as substrate, the results showed a 25% increase in enzymatic hydrolysis yield when compared to the results obtained in shake flasks. These results indicate that the use of this reactor can contribute significantly to progress in this area.

Scientific publications

(4)

(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)

CASTRO, RAFAEL C. A.; FERREIRA, ISABELA S.; ROBERTO, INES C.; MUSSATTO, SOLANGE I.. Isolation and physicochemical characterization of different lignin streams generated during the second-generation ethanol production process. International Journal of Biological Macromolecules, v. 129, p. 497-510, MAY 15 2019. (13/13953-6, 15/20510-9, 15/24813-6)

ROBERTO, INES C.; CASTRO, RAFAEL C. A.; SILVA, JOAO PAULO A.; MUSSATTO, SOLANGE I.. Ethanol Production from High Solid Loading of Rice Straw by Simultaneous Saccharification and Fermentation in a Non-Conventional Reactor. ENERGIES, v. 13, n. 8, APR 2020. (15/24813-6, 13/13953-6)

DE ASSIS CASTRO, RAFAEL CUNHA; MUSSATTO, SOLANGE I.; ROBERTO, INES CONCEICAO. A vertical ball mill as a new reactor design for biomass hydrolysis and fermentation process. RENEWABLE ENERGY, v. 114, n. B, p. 775-780, DEC 2017. (13/13953-6, 15/24813-6)

DE ASSIS CASTRO, RAFAEL CUNHA; FONSECA, BRUNO GUEDES; LIMA DOS SANTOS, HILTON TULIO; FERREIRA, ISABELA SILVEIRA; MUSSATTO, SOLANGE INES; ROBERTO, INES CONCEICAO. Alkaline deacetylation as a strategy to improve sugars recovery and ethanol production from rice straw hemicellulose and cellulose. INDUSTRIAL CROPS AND PRODUCTS, v. 106, n. SI, p. 65-73, NOV 1 2017. (13/13953-6, 15/24813-6)

Academic Publications

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

CASTRO, Rafael Cunha de Assis. Ethanol production from rice straw by simultaneous saccharification and fermentation employing a non-conventional stirred reactor. 2017. Doctoral Thesis - Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Escola de Engenharia de Lorena (EEL/ASDI) Lorena.