Environmental Friendly Methodology for Production of Ethanol from Bagasse by Sequential Bio-Processing

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January 24, 2017

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by Prabhuraj Balakrishnan (University of Manchester/Nanowerk News) ... In a research work by The University of Manchester academics (Prof. Colin Webb's research group at the School of Chemical Engineering), a new methodology have been developed, that significantly reduces the time and cost involved in these reducing sugars (ethanol and other alcohols) production method.

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In their paper in Bioresource Technology ("Production of a generic microbial feedstock for lignocellulose biorefineries through sequential bioprocessing"), they have shown that the fungus Trichoderma longibrachiatum, on added to the lignocellulosic substrate (sugarcane bagasse and soyabean hull) has resulted in the production of feedstock for ethanol yield.

The mechanism explained is that this fungus, degrades lignocellulosic substances with the simultaneous release of enzymes, producing feed stock and then this is hydrolysed for ethanol production. This has a significant advantage over the chemical pre-treatment methods, as this eliminates the need for pre-treatment step, subsequently reducing the number of stages in a processing step. Further, this feedstock production through this single step process adds more simplicity to the overall process.

This eco-friendly methodology is predicted to surpass current commercial production, which could subsequently eliminate the expensive pre-treatment method and relatively reduce the processing time. Comparing to the studies made before, the yield of ethanol per mass of raw material is quite comparable to the chemical pre-treatment strategies, around 0.04 g of product per gram of raw material for this method (and 0.01 to 0.1 g from the literature).

Also this feedstock produced other nutrients such as aminoacids, peptides and other micronutrients apart from ethanol which could be used for other purposes. READ MORE