Monday, May 2, 2011
Grand Ballroom C-D, 2nd fl (Sheraton Seattle)
The heavy reliance on nonrenewable energy sources and high pollution has led the company to seek alternatives to the use of renewable fuels. In this context, current research highlight how emerging technology to produce fuel ethanol from lignocellulosic agro-industrial waste that already exist, such as the sugarcane bagasse and the industry waste pulp. The bacterium Zymomonas mobilis has been presenting technological attributes that enhance its use in alcoholic fermentation in industrial scale: tolerance to high concentrations of glucose, high yields, besides having the ability to grow under anaerobic conditions. This work aims to optimize the production of ethanol from waste paper industry, using SSF technology (Simultaneous Saccharification and Fermentation) by Zymomonas mobilis. Initially, the cellulose present in the pulp was pre-hydrolyzed by cellulase enzymes in a commercial enzyme complex, allowing the conversion of cellulose to fermentable sugars and then occurs the fermentation process. It was done an Experimental Design and the highest concentrations of ethanol were obtained from 54 g /L from the waste paper industry in an instrumented bioreactor.