Fermentation of biomass sugars to ethanol using native industrial yeast strains.
In this paper, the feasibility of a technology for fermenting sugar mixtures representative of cellulosic biomass hydrolyzates with native industrial yeast strains is demonstrated. This paper explores the isomerization of xylose to xylulose using a bi-layered enzyme pellet system capable of sustaining a micro-environmental pH gradient. This ability allows for considerable flexibility in conducting the isomerization and fermentation steps. With this method, the isomerization and fermentation could be conducted sequentially, in fed-batch, or simultaneously to maximize utilization of both C5 and C6 sugars and ethanol yield. This system takes advantage of a pH-dependent complexation of xylulose with a supplemented additive to achieve up to 86% isomerization of xylose at fermentation conditions. Commercially-proven Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains from the corn-ethanol industry were used and shown to be very effective in implementation of the technology for ethanol production.
Department of Bioengineering, University of Toledo, Toledo, OH 43606, USA.
Dawei
D
Yuan
Kripa
K
Rao
Patricia
P
Relue
Sasidhar
S
Varanasi
D018533:Biomass; D050260:Carbohydrate Metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D000431:Ethanol / Q000378:metabolism*; D005285:Fermentation; D007221:Industry / Q000379:methods; D010936:Plant Extracts / Q000378:metabolism*; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000145:classification* / Q000378:metabolism*; D013045:Species Specificity
D010936:Plant Extracts; D000431:Ethanol