Production of Bioethanol from Multiple Waste Streams of Rice Milling

Agriculture/Food Processing Residues nonfield crop, Feedstocks, Field/Orchard/Plantation Crops/Residues, Italy, Process, R & D Focus, South Africa, Sustainability, University/College Programs

August 25, 2017

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LorenzoFavaro, et al. (Bioresource Technology) Rice milling by-products are promising feedstocks for bioethanol. Starch-rich residues were efficiently fermented by two engineered amylolytic yeast. Rice husk, composed by lignocellulose, was pre-treated with alkaline peroxide. Pre-treated husk was saccharified by commercial enzymes and fermented. Multiple rice by-products were co-processed to ethanol by amylolytic strains.

This work describes the feasibility of using rice milling by-products as feedstock for bioethanol. Starch-rich residues (rice bran, broken, unripe and discolored rice) were individually fermented (20% w/v) through Consolidated Bioprocessing by two industrial engineered yeast secreting fungal amylases. Rice husk (20% w/v), mainly composed by lignocellulose, was pre-treated at 55 °C with alkaline peroxide, saccharified through optimized dosages of commercial enzymes (Cellic® CTec2) and fermented by the recombinant strains.

Finally, a blend of all the rice by-products, formulated as a mixture (20% w/v) according to their proportions at milling plants, were co-processed to ethanol by optimized pre-treatment, saccharification and fermentation by amylolytic strains.

Fermenting efficiency for each by-product was high (above 88% of the theoretical) and further confirmed on the blend of residues (nearly 52 g/L ethanol). These results demonstrated for the first time that the co-conversion of multiple waste streams is a promising option for second generation ethanol production. READ MORE

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