Bioethanol production from dedicated energy crops and residues in Arkansas, USA

Abstract

Globally, one of the major technologic goals is to achieve cost-effective lignocellulosic ethanol production from biomass feedstocks. Lignocellulosic biomass of four dedicated energy crops [giant reed (Arundo donax L.), elephantgrass (Pennisetum purpureum (Schumach), Miscanthus × giganteus (Illinois clone), and (clone Q42641) {hybrid of Miscanthus sinensis Anderss. and Miscanthus sacchariflorus (Maxim)}, Hack. called giant miscanthus, and sugarcane clone US 84-1028 (Saccharum L. spp. hybrid)] and residues from two crops [soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.) litter and rice (Oryza sativa L.) husk] were tested for bioethanol production using cellulose solvent-based lignocellulose fractionation (CSLF) pretreatment and enzymatic (cellulase) hydrolysis. Giant miscanthus (Illinois), giant reed, giant miscanthus (Q42641), elephantgrass, and sugarcane all yielded higher amount of glucose on a biomass dry weight basis (0.290-0.331 g/g), than did rice husk (0.181 g/g) and soybean litter (0.186 g/g). To reduce the capital investment for energy consumption in fermentation, we used a self-flocculating yeast strain (SPSC01) to ferment the lignocellulosic biomass hydrolysates. Bioethanol production was ∼0.1 g/g in dedicated energy crops and less in two crop residues. These methods and data can help to develop a cost-effective downstream process for bioethanol production.

Environment Has Little Effect on Biomass Biochemical Composition of Miscanthus × giganteus Across Soil Types, Nitrogen Fertilization, and Times of Harvest

“…The C4 warm season perennial grasses Miscanthus×giganteus Greef and Deuter ex Hodkinson and Renvoize [22,35] is a high-yielding, lowinput lignocellulosic bioenergy feedstock which has been grown for many years without fertilization and with limited weed control [11,2,3,47]. The material of this species has become known in the USA as the Illinois clone [20] and has proved particularly productive in the Midwest USA [2,3,27]. This is to the extent that by 2012, the US Department of Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s12155-015-9613-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.…”

Reviews of Science for Science Librarians: Second-generation Biofuels Feedstock: Crop Wastes, Energy Grasses, and Forest Byproducts

“…Elephant grass Pennisetum purpureum, sometimes called Napier grass, is almost exclusively grown in the tropics, but it has several features that have commended it for study as a biomass source for biofuel conversion in Southern U.S. states (Ge et al 2011). It biologically fixes a good deal of atmospheric nitrogen on its own, similar to some legumes, thereby Furthermore, in fields where manures are frequently applied as either or both fertilizer and waste management disposal method of last resort, elephant grass absorbs a higher proportion than other energy grasses, of the organic phosphorous that might otherwise leach into groundwater and pollute local watersheds (Silveira et al 2013).…”

Current achievements in the mechanically pretreated conversion of plant biomass

“…In particular, the production of bioethanol is increasingly involving the replacement of edible raw materials with nonedible raw materials (Bai, Anderson, & Moo‐Young, ; Galbe & Zacchi, ; Lynd, Weimer, van Zyl, & Pretorius, ; Skiba, Mironova, Kukhlenko, & Orlov, ; Taherzadeh & Karimi, ; Zheng, Pan, & Zhang, ). In this context, the most promising raw material is the waste from agricultural processes (straw of cereals, oil‐palm bunches, sunflower husks) and plants with a high growth rate and abundant green mass, for example, miscanthus (silver grass; Denisova, Makarova, Pavlov, Budaeva, & Sakovich, ; Gaveau, Balzter, & Plummer, ; Ge, Burner, Xu, Phillips, & Sivakumar, ; Makarova, Budaeva, Skiba, & Sakovich, ; Skiba et al, , ; Sorensen, Teller, Hilstrom, & Ahring, ).…”