Development of Geothermally Assisted Process for Production of Liquid Fuels and Chemicals from Wheat Straw

摘要

The effects of variations in autohydrolysis conditions on the production of fermentable sugars from wheat straw are investigated. Both the direct production of sugar from the autohydrolysis of hemicellulose and the subsequent yield from the enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose are considered. The principal parameters studied were time, temperature, and water/fiber weight ratio; however, the effects of adding minor amounts of phenol and aluminum sulfate to the autohydrolysis charge were also investigated. A brief study was made of the effects of two major parameters, substrate concentration and enzyme/substrate ratio, on the sugar yield from enzymatic hydrolysis of optimally pretreated straw. The efficiency with which these sugars could be fermented to ethanol was studied. In most cases experiments were carried out using distilled water; however, the effects of direct use of geothermal water were determined for each of the major steps in the process. An appendix to the body of the report describes the results of a preliminary economic evaluation of a plant designed to produce 25 x 10 exp 6 gallons of ethanol per year from wheat straw using the best process conditions determined in the above work. Also appended are the results from a preliminary investigation of the applicability of autohydrolysis technology to the production of fermentable sugars from corn stover. (ERA citation 81:025406)