Cellulosic ethanol re-ignites the fire of cellulose degradation

摘要

The efforts of US congress to encourage the use of biofuels to reduce its dependency on petroleum have recently been endorsed by the President. This will inevitably turn the spotlight back on to cellulosic ethanol as an alternative fuel with a lower carbon footprint. Biofuels are currently only truly economic to produce in times of petroleum shortage, but the development of cheaper enzymes and better pre-treatment processes could quickly change the balance. Interest in cellulose hydrolysis as a process to generate sugar feed stocks for fermentation will also increase. A number of kinetic models have been reported for cellulose hydrolysis, which describe asymptotic approach of DP to a limiting value of between 150 and 250. The wide range of activation energies reported can probably be explained by the complex nature of cellulosic structures, giving rise to a spectrum of bond scission energies in the material.