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Research article2013Peer reviewed

Enhanced ethanol production from wheat straw by integrated storage and pre-treatment (ISP)

Passoth, Volkmar; Tabassum, Mohammad Rizwan; Nair, Harikrishnan A.S.; Olstorpe, Matilda; Tiukova, Ievgeniia; Ståhlberg, Jerry

Abstract

Integrated storage and pre-treatment (ISP) combines biopreservation of moist material under airtight conditions and pre-treatment. Moist wheat straw was inoculated with the biocontrol yeast Wickerhamomyces anomalus, the xylan degrading yeast Scheffersomyces stipitis or a co-culture of both. The samples and non-inoculated controls were stored at 4 or 15 degrees C. The non-inoculated controls were heavily contaminated with moulds, in contrast to the samples inoculated with W. anomalus or S. stipitis. These two yeasts were able to grow on wheat straw as sole source of nutrients. When ethanol was produced from moist wheat straw stored for four weeks at 4 degrees C with S. stipitis, and up to 40% enhanced yield (final yield 0.15g ethanol per g straw dry weight) was obtained compared to a dry sample (0.107 g/g). In all other moist samples, stored for four weeks at 4 degrees C or 15 degrees C, 6-35% higher yields were obtained. Thus, energy efficient bio-preservation can improve the pre-treatment efficiency for lignocellulose biomass, which is a critical bottleneck in its conversion to biofuels. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Keywords

Wheat straw; Bio-preservation; Pre-treatment; Ethanol

Published in

Enzyme and Microbial Technology
2013, Volume: 52, number: 2, pages: 105-110 Publisher: ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC