Wednesday, May 7, 2008 - 8:00 AM
9-01
Production of Ethanol from Lignocellulosic Biomass
Mian Li and Colin Mitchinson. Genencor, A Danisco Division, 925 Page Mill Road, Palo Alto, CA 94304
In the U.S. , about 95% of the fuel ethanol is made from corn as the primary feedstock. Upon completion of new construction and expansion, total capacity will be 14.5 billons gallons of ethanol (2007 Data). It is estimated that there is an upper limit between 12-15 billion gallons a year using starch-based feedstock in the US . If the goal of displacing 30 percent of transportation fuel with renewable fuels is to be reached by 2030, lignocellulosic biomass has great potential to become a major alternative source of the fermentable sugars. Utilization of lignocellulosic materials as a renewable carbon source however depends on the development of economically feasible methods for both hydrolyzing cellulose to sugar, as well as converting those sugars to usable fuels.
In this presentation, conversion of lignocellulosic biomass such as pretreated corn stover and sugar cane bagasse to ethanol will be described. The performance of Genencor’s new “whole cellulase” commercial product for biomass conversion, Accellerase™ 1000, will be shown. Different process configurations such as separate saccharification and fermentation, simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF), and hybrid hydrolysis and fermentation (HHF) will be compared. The synergistic effect of enzyme systems on the fermentation process and ethanol yield will be discussed.