Ethanol production from sugars obtained during enzymatic hydrolysis of elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum, Schum.) pretreated by steam explosion

Abstract

In this work, steam explosion was used a pretreatment method to improve the conversion of elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum) to cellulosic ethanol. This way, enzymatic hydrolysis of vaccum-drained and water-washed steam-treated substrates was carried out with Penicillium echinulatum enzymes while Saccharomyces cerevisiae CAT-1 was used for fermentation. After 48 h of hydrolysis, the highest yield of reducing sugars was obtained from vaccum-drained steam-treated substrates that were produced after 10 min at 200 °C (863.42 ± 62.52 mg/g). However, the highest glucose yield was derived from water-washed steam-treated substrates that were produced after 10 min at 190 °C (248.34 ± 6.27 mg/g) and 200 °C (246.00 ± 9.60 mg/g). Nevertheless, the highest ethanol production was obtained from water-washed steam-treated substrates that were produced after 6 min at 200 °C. These data revealed that water washing is a critical step for ethanol production from steam-treated elephant grass and that pretreatment generates a great deal of water soluble inhibitory compounds for hydrolysis and fermentation, which were partly characterized as part of this study.

Use of elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum) as substrate for cellulase and xylanase production in solid-state cultivation by Penicillium echinulatum

“…Ethanol is mostly produced from sugar and starch feedstocks; however, the interest in using biomass and bioenergy has been initiated due to the recognition that the global crude oil reserve is finite, and its depletion is occurring much faster than previously predicted (Bai et al, 2008;Macedo et al, 2013;Scholl et al, 2015a). Lignocellulosic materials have a high potential for ethanol production, do not compete with food production, could lead to the use of large quantities of agroindustrial wastes and could use marginal or degraded agricultural lands for growing energy crops (Eliana et al, 2014;Idrees et al, 2014).…”

“…In this context, the species Pennisetum purpureum, known as elephant grass, has been considered a new alternative for energy crops, and this species is expected to provide abundant and sustainable resources for biofuel production (Scholl et al, 2015a;Xie et al, 2011). Another interesting aspect of elephant grass is its productivity, which results in the production of 45 tons of dry mass per hectare per year.…”

High‐performance of Agaricus blazei fungus for the biological pretreatment of elephant grass

“…Xylan is the main carbohydrate found in hemicellulose. The xylanases have different action on different substrates and may produce oligosaccharides from cleavage xylan …”

“…The lignocellulosics are among the most abundant renewable resources on earth, and can be considered an attractive feedstock for ethanol production and other alternative fuels, since they do not compete with food production . These materials include many agricultural residues such as straw, hulls, sugarcane bagasse, etc …”

Prospecção Tecnológica Do Capim Elefante E Sua Relevância Como Matéria-Prima Para a Produção Energética

“…Algumas pesquisas estão buscando também viabilizar o uso do campim elefante como matéria-prima para a produção de etanol de 2ª geração, com a vantagem que seu plantio causaria menores problemas ao solo, como acontece com o cultivo da cana-de-açúcar (SCHOLL et al, 2015;JONKER et al, 2015;FONTOURA et al, 2015).…”