Cellulosic ethanol from sugarcane straw and bagasse: non-conventional pretreatments and biotechnological conversion

Author(s)

Naila Ribeiro Mori

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: Lorena.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Escola de Engenharia de Lorena (EEL/ASDI)
• Defense date: 2015-10-15

Examining board members

Adilson Roberto Gonçalves; Valdeir Arantes; Telma Teixeira Franco; Júlio César dos Santos; Mary Mitsue Yokosawa

• Advisor: Adilson Roberto Gonçalves

Abstract

Due to the crises in the oil sector, in addition to interest in reducing the emission of carbon dioxide (CO2), many countries seek to develop new fuels. Currently, over 80% of the vehicle fleet in Brazil only run on ethanol or a mixture of ethanol and gasoline. Thus, bioethanol is considered an alternative renewable fuel with great potential to replace petroleum derived fuels. To meet the growing ethanol demand, without competing with cultivable areas focused on food production, lignocellulosic materials sources can be used in order to take advantage of the cellulosic fraction to obtain fermentable sugar for bioethanol production. In this study, the objective was to evaluate the effect of pretreatment technologies (conventional and unconventional) of sugar and alcohol byproducts (bagasse and straw) followed or not by a delignification step on the enzymatic conversion of each biomass, besides test and evaluate the effect that mixing of the two biomasses (before pretreatment), in different proportions, can cause in the production of 2G ethanol. In the first part of the study, sugarcane straw was submitted to the hydrothermal pre-treatment and pre-treatment by ultrasound, followed by an alkaline delignification step. For the hydrothermal pretreatment, three temperatures were tested (160, 170 and 180°C) in the times of 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 min for each temperature. For the test with ultrasound, the experiments were conducted in three different enviroments (acid, alkaline and aqueous medium - control) in the times of 1-30 minutes for each condition. The pretreated by ultrasound and by hydrothermal method samples were delignified with NaOH solution 1% (w/v) for 1 hour. After pre-treatment and delignification, the enzymatic hydrolysis assays were performed using Celluclast 1.5L (15 FPU/g of substrate) and ?-glucosidase (12.5 IU/g of substrate). The hydrothermal pretreatment condition most promising for the straw was at 170°C for 10 min, showing that the straw doesn\'t require more severe treatments to obtain a higher digestibility of the enzymatic hydrolysis process. Yet the ultrasound method led to increased recalcitrance of lignocellulosic material for both the delignificant agent as for cellulases. In a second part of the study, straw, and bagasse were pre-treated by steam explosion catalyzed by SO2 under the following conditions for each biomass: 190, 195 and 200°C for 5 min and 3% of SO2 (m/m). After finding the optimal condition for both biomasses (190°C, 5 min, 3% SO2), three different ratios of mixtures of straw and bagasse were tested: 90% straw / 10% bagasse, 90% bagasse / 10% straw and straw 50% / 50% bagasse and these mixtures were pretreated in the optimized condition. At all stages, the enzymatic hydrolysis was carried out. It was observed that the higher sugar recovery was found in the sample 50% bagasse / 50% straw. Interestingly, when compared with a treated biomass separately, all three blends exhibit a greater sugar recovery. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 10/20395-1 - Cellulosic ethanol from sugarcane straw and trash: non-conventional pre-treatments and biotechnological conversion
• Grantee: Naila Ribeiro Mori
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate (Direct)