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ARS Home » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #166803
Title: FUEL ETHANOL PRODUCTION FROM WHEAT STRAW: CURRENT STATUS AND TECHNICAL PROSPECTS

Author
item Saha, Badal
item Iten, Loren
item Cotta, Michael
item Wu, Ying Victor

Submitted to: Meeting Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/5/2004
Publication Date: 11/1/2004
Citation: Saha, B.C., Iten, L.B., Cotta, M.A., Wu, Y. 2004. Fuel ethanol production from wheat straw: current status and technical prospects. In: Van Swaaij, W.P.M., Fjallstrom, T., Helm, P., Grassi, A., editors. Proceedings of the 2nd World Conference on Biomass for Energy, Industry, and Climate Protection, May 10-14, 2004, Rome, Italy, p. 1481-1483.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Wheat straw consists of about 45% cellulose and 25% hemicellulose and has the potential to serve as a low cost feedstock for production of fuel ethanol. Two pretreatment (dilute acid and alkali) procedures and enzymatic saccharification were evaluated for conversion of wheat straw cellulose and hemicellulose to monomeric sugars. The maximum yield of monomeric sugars from wheat straw by acid or alkali pretreatment and enzymatic saccharification was about 80-85% of the theoretical yield. The maximum ethanol yield from wheat straw hydrolyzate by recombinant ethanologenic Escherichia coli strain FBR5 was 20 g/L from 86 g/L wheat straw.