Sunday, August 12, 2012
Columbia Hall, Terrace Level (Washington Hilton)
Our need for alternative and cleaner liquid fuel is ever growing because of the dwindling supply and increased price of oil for the past ten years. Lignocellulosic ethanol production is an attractive option to meet the demand of energy for the transportation sector. Agricultural residues are produced in large quantities throughout the world. Approximately, 1 kg of residue is produced for each kilogram of grain harvested. This ratio of grain/residue translates into an excess of 40 billion ton of crop residue produced each year in the USA. These residues are renewable resources that could be used to produce ethanol to solve the energy problem. In this study, we demonstrate that the post-harvest sugarcane residue could be used to produce fuel grade ethanol. A fungal pretreatment using white rot and brown rot fungi was applied to remove the lignin, which acts as physical barrier to cellulolytic enzymes. A recombinant E. coli FBR 5 strain was used to ferment the cellulosic and hemicellulosic sugars after enzymatic saccharification. The results showed significant ethanol production when white rot and brown rot fungi were used together as a pre-treatment process to remove lignin compared to the treatment in which these fungi were used alone.