Enhanced Fermentable Sugars Yield for Bioethanol Production from Lignocellulosic Biomass

doi: 10.14456/mijet.2017.4

Abstract

The three pretreatment methods to enhance fermentable sugar yield for bioethanol production from corn stalk including acid pretreatment method(1), acid-ultrasonication pretreatment method(2) and acid-autoclave pretreatment method(3) were investigated. Chemical composition analysis of pretreated corn stalks were carried out using FT-IR technique and standard TAPPI method. The results showed that all pretreated samples consist of mainly cellulose, which is basic unit of sugars that can be fermented into ethanol. The maximum cellulose content of 68.15%wt, 82.20%wt and 78.47%wt were obtained from method (1), (2) and (3), respectively. Although, a quite similar fermentable sugar yield, determined by DNS method (30.51-32.94mg/mL), for all samples was observed. However, it was indicated that using ultrasonication and  autoclave in pretreatment process could significantly reduce time consuming than that of only acid pretreatment. The morphological features and surface characteristics of all pretreated samples determined by SEM evident that the complex structure of sample was decomposed resulted in fermentable sugar release. In conclusion, acid-autoclave pretreatment was considered as appropriated method in this work. It can enhance fermentable sugar yield with short time and low energy required for proceed. In addition, this method is mild operating conditions, simple to perform and environmentally friendly processing.