Enzymatic liquefaction of sugar beet as a versatile biofuel feedstock

Sugar beets are an extremely efficient, high sugar yielding industrial crop and show potential for further yield increases when considered for non-food applications.  However, special attention must be paid to efficient production and processing means to ensure favorable economic, environmental, and food security aims can be achieved.  Studied here is a process whereby sugar beet is ground and enzymatically liquefied to enable high solids (approximately 20% total solids) fermentation.  This process is compatible with conventional downstream fermentation infrastructure, reduces the need for a hot water diffusion step and can increase fermentable sugar content by 10% over traditional methods.  The effect of varying commercial cellulase and pectinase loadings, pretreatment and hydrolysis temperature and pH, as well as particle size and agitation rates are evaluated for their impact on viscosity and saccharification profiles to aid industrial scale-up efforts.