Traditionally in a lignocellulosic ethanol process all available C5 and C6 sugars are used for ethanol production. However, none of the organisms developed for conversion of both C5 and C6 sugars to ethanol is as efficient or robust as the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which readily converts C6 sugars to high titers of ethanol. In addition, having ethanol as the only main product may not be an economically attractive option considering the high capital costs of lignocellulosic processing plants. In our proposed new approach, the pretreated biomass is first hydrolyzed by hemicellulase to produce a stream rich in C5 sugars, which is subsequently used for production of value-added co-products instead of ethanol. The solid residue is then hydrolyzed with cellulase to produce a glucose-rich stream, which is used for ethanol production with S. cerevisiae. This approach creates many opportunities but also presents many challenges. These opportunities and challenges will be discussed.

Developing the biorefinery: Production of value-added products and fuel from lignocellulosic feedstocks

244th National Meeting (2012)

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