Miscanthus: a fast‐growing crop for biofuels and chemicals production

Abstract

Miscanthus represents a key candidate energy crop for use in biomass‐to‐liquid fuel‐conversion processes and biorefineries to produce a range of liquid fuels and chemicals; it has recently attracted considerable attention. Its yield, elemental composition, carbohydrate and lignin content and composition are of high importance to be reviewed for future biofuel production and development. Starting from Miscanthus, various pre‐treatment technologies have recently been developed in the literature to break down the lignin structure, disrupt the crystalline structure of cellulose, and enhance its enzyme digestibility. These technologies included chemical, physicochemical, and biological pre‐treatments. Due to its significantly lower concentrations of moisture and ash, Miscanthus also represents a key candidate crop for use in biomass‐to‐liquid conversion processes to produce a range of liquid fuels and chemicals by thermochemical conversion. The goal of this paper is to review the current status of the technology for biofuel production from this crop within a biorefinery context.

Transformation of Miscanthus and Sorghum cellulose during methane fermentation

“…and after it was 45.4% d.m. Slightly higher percentage of cellulose in the varieties of Miscanthus harvested at maturity was marked by Brosse et al (2012) as well as by Lee and Kuan (2015). It the case of species Sorghum, the plants harvested after the growing season had lower average cellulose percentage, which amounted to 39.8%.…”

“…(Brosse et al 2012;Dukiewicz et al 2014). In order to determine usefulness of that species for bioethanol production Lee and Kuan (2015) specified the content of cellulose in a variety of Miscanthus 9 giganteus, Miscanthus sacchariflorus and Miscanthus sinensis, and those values amounted to 41.1, 38.9 and 37.6%, respectively.…”

“…They showed that percentage of cellulose for variety of Miscanthus sacchariflorus and Miscanthus sinensis achieves 38.5 and 35.1%, respectively. Brosse et al (2012) conducted research on the chemical composition of the varieties of Miscanthus harvested twice a year in order to show the best feedstock for biorefinery purposes. They received the cellulose content ranging from 43.1 to 50.3% from plants harvested in November, whereas for the harvest in February they received the content of cellulose from 45.4 to 52.2%.…”

N 2 gas is an effective fertilizer for bioethanol production by Zymomonas mobilis

“…Additional glucose was added to raise the concentration to 75 mM in 10 mL. Two additional glucose supplements of 500 μmol each were later added during the fermentation to simulate the total amount of sugar expected if cellulases were used to liberate additional glucose and if a strain capable of xylose utilization were used (26). These additions were made whenever the OD 660 values stopped increasing.…”

Toxicological characterization of particulate emissions from straw,Miscanthus, and poplar pellet combustion in residential boilers

“…These crops can yield high amounts of biomass per acre of cultivated land in a short time (Brosse et al 2012), but most combustion studies on these fuels have come to similar conclusions: slagging and fouling increase due to the high ash content of the fuels and low ash melting temperatures. Additionally, ash deposits can cause significant corrosion in the burners and boilers Lamberg et al 2013;Kortelainen et al 2015).…”