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Title: ASSESSMENT OF ETHANOL PRODUCTION OPTIONS FOR CORN PRODUCTS: ENGINEERING FRAMEWORK FOR ESTIMATING THEORETICAL YIELDS AND PRACTICAL MAXIMA

Author
item GULATI, MANISH - PURDUE UNIV
item KOHLMANN, KAREN - PURDUE UNIV
item LADISCH, MICHAEL - PURDUE UNIV
item Hespell, Robert
item Bothast, Rodney

Submitted to: Bioresource Technology
Publication Type: Review Article
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/30/1996
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: The production of ethanol from corn fiber has the potential to increase ethanol yields by a maximum of 0.3 gal/bushel in a wet milling process. Incremental yields would be 0.13 gal/bushel from hexose, 0.1 from D-xylose and 0.07 from L-arabinose, at 100% hydrolysis and fermentation efficiency. At 80% efficiency for hexose hydrolysis and fermentation, and 70% for pentose, an incremental yield of 0.22 gal/bushel of corn is expected. Of this total, 0.1 gal/bushel would be from hexoses, 0.07 from D-xylose and 0.05 from L-arabinose. A maximum practical yield would probably fall within this range. These calculations are based on published compositional analyses of cellulose, starch, monosaccharides, hemicellulose, protein and oil as distributed between the compartmentalized components of the corn kernel. The state of the art in pentose fermenting microorganisms is discussed with experimental yield factors for xylose (0.36 g ethanol/g xylose) and arabinose (0.34) being derived from the current literature. An engineering framework for assigning economic consequences of the additional utilization of fiber is presented. We estimate that a wet milling facility which currently produces 100 million gal/year of ethanol from starch could generate an additional $4 to 8 million of annual income, if the fiber components were processed into ethanol. Hence, advances in fiber pretreatment and pentose fermentation are likely to have a major impact on enhancing productivity of corn ethanol plants.