Simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) is one process option for production of ethanol from lignocellulose. The principal benefits of performing the enzymatic hydrolysis together with the fermentation, instead of in a separate step after the hydrolysis, are the reduced endproduct inhibition of the enzymatic hydrolysis, and the reduced investment costs. The principal drawbacks, on the other hand, are the need to find favorable conditions (e.g. temperature and pH) for both the enzymatic hydrolysis and the fermentation and the difficulty to recycle the fermenting organism and the enzymes. To satisfy the first requirement, the temperature is normally kept below 37°C, whereas the difficulty to recycle the yeast makes it beneficial to operate with a low yeast concentration and at a high solid loading. In this review, we make a brief overview of recent experimental work and development of SSF using lignocellulosic feedstocks. Significant progress has been made with respect to increasing the substrate loading, decreasing the yeast concentration and co-fermentation of both hexoses and pentoses during SSF. Presently, an SSF process for e.g. wheat straw hydrolyzate can be expected to give final ethanol concentrations close to 40 g L -1 with a yield based on total hexoses and pentoses higher than 70%.

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Background: Simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) is a promising process option for ethanol production from lignocellulosic materials. However, both the overall ethanol yield and the final ethanol concentration in the fermentation broth must be high. Hence, almost complete conversion of both hexoses and pentoses must be achieved in SSF at a high solid content. A principal difficulty is to obtain an efficient pentose uptake in the presence of high glucose and inhibitor concentrations. Initial glucose present in pretreated spruce decreases the xylose utilization by yeast, due to competitive inhibition of sugar transport. In the current work, prefermentation was studied as a possible means to overcome the problem of competitive inhibition. The free hexoses, initially present in the slurry, were in these experiments fermented before adding the enzymes, thereby lowering the glucose concentration.

Background Simultaneous saccharification and co-fermentation (SSCF) has been recognized as a feasible option for ethanol production from xylose-rich lignocellulosic materials. To reach high ethanol concentration in the broth, a high content of water-insoluble solids (WIS) is needed, which creates mixing problems and, furthermore, may decrease xylose uptake. Feeding of substrate has already been proven to give a higher xylose conversion than a batch SSCF. In the current work, enzyme feeding, in addition to substrate feeding, was investigated as a means of enabling a higher WIS content with a high xylose conversion in SSCF of a xylose-rich material. A recombinant xylose-fermenting strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae (TMB3400) was used for this purpose in fed-batch SSCF experiments of steam-pretreated wheat straw. Results By using both enzyme and substrate feeding, the xylose conversion in SSCF could be increased from 40% to 50% in comparison to substrate feeding only. In addition, by this design of the feeding strategy, it was possible to process a WIS content corresponding to 11% in SSCF and obtain an ethanol yield on fermentable sugars of 0.35 g g -1 . Conclusion A combination of enzyme and substrate feeding was shown to enhance xylose uptake by yeast and increase overall ethanol yield in SSCF. This is conceptually important for the design of novel SSCF processes aiming at high-ethanol titers. Substrate feeding prevents viscosity from becoming too high and thereby allows a higher total amount of WIS to be added in the process. The enzyme feeding, furthermore, enables keeping the glucose concentration low, which kinetically favors xylose uptake and results in a higher xylose conversion.

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Genetically engineered Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains are able to ferment xylose present in lignocellulosic biomass. However, better xylose fermenting strains are required to reach complete xylose uptake in simultaneous saccharification and co-fermentation (SSCF) of lignocellulosic hydrolyzates. In the current study, haploid Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains expressing a heterologous xylose pathway including either the native xylose reductase (XR) from P. stipitis, a mutated variant of XR (mXR) with altered co-factor preference, a glucose/xylose facilitator (Gxf1) from Candida intermedia or both mXR and Gxf1 were assessed in SSCF of acid-pretreated non-detoxified wheat straw. The xylose conversion in SSCF was doubled with the S. cerevisiae strain expressing mXR compared to the isogenic strain expressing the native XR, converting 76% and 38%, respectively. The xylitol yield was less than half using mXR in comparison with the native variant. As a result of this, the ethanol yield increased from 0.33 to 0.39 g g-1 when the native XR was replaced by mXR. In contrast, the expression of Gxf1 only slightly increased the xylose uptake, and did not increase the ethanol production. The results suggest that ethanolic xylose fermentation under SSCF conditions is controlled primarily by the XR activity and to a much lesser extent by xylose transport.