ARS | Publication request: FUEL ETHANOL PRODUCTION FROM AGRICULTURAL RESIDUES AND PROCESSING BYPRODUCTS

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: December 8, 2006
Publication Date: December 8, 2006
Citation: Saha, B.C., Cotta, M.A. 2006. Fuel ethanol production from agricultural residues and processing byproducts [abstract]. Biocatalysis and Bioenergy. p. 34.

Technical Abstract: In 2005, the production of fuel ethanol from corn starch reached 4.5 billion gallons in the U.S. Various agricultural residues such as corn stover and wheat straw, and agricultural processing byproducts such as corn fiber and rice hulls, can serve as low-cost lignocellulosic feedstocks for conversion to fuel ethanol. Any native lignocellulosic biomass is resistant to enzymatic saccharification. Research needs to be carried out to develop an efficient pretreatment method which can help enzymes breakdown the complex carbohydrates to simple sugars without generating compounds inhibitory to fermentative microorganism. The efficient utilization of all sugars is essential for cost-effective production of ethanol from these substrates. Our research dealing with the pretreatment of corn fiber, wheat straw, and rice hulls without generating the fermentation inhibitors, enzymatic saccharification, and fermentation of the sugars (glucose, xylose, arabinose, and galactose) to ethanol by an ethanol producing recombinant bacterium using both separate hydrolysis and fermentation (SHF) and simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) approaches will be presented. The problems and prospects of developing an integrated bioprocess technology for conversion of any lignocellulosic biomass to fuel ethanol will be highlighted.