An integrated and intensified approach for enhanced bioethanol production and validation with different lignocellulosic materials

摘要

With the increase of fossil fuels prices and environmental concerns derived of its use, the searchof new energy sources has become a central subject. Lignocellulosic biomass is a renewable andabundant source of organic material in amount enough to satisfy the growing energetic needs andsuitable for the bioconversion into biofuels. The appropriate use of lignocellulosic biomass toproduce biofuels must integrate several requirements: selection of the appropriate rawmaterials, effective biomass pre-treatment to improve the enzymatic saccharification ofcellulose into glucose and efficient conversion of hexoses and pentoses from the pre-treatmentinto biofuels. In this context, great progress has been accomplished in terms of lignocellulosicbioethanol production, but an integrated approach of all stages involved in the process is still agoal to be achieved. The main highlighted challenges are: reduction of processing costs, recoveryand valorisation of all biomass fractions, and development of robust microorganisms able tosuccessfully convert all the available sugars into the desired biofuels under harsh and intensifiedconditions. (Menon and Rao, 2012) Recent works showed the importance of suitable strainselection from industrial environments (Pereira et al., 2014) for efficient lignocellulosefermentation and for its engineered modification in order to metabolize xylose (Romaní et al.,2015). In this context, the aim of this work was the development of efficient ethanol processfrom several lignocellulosic materials, derived from agricultural products (corn cob and wheatstraw) and hardwood materials (eucalyptus and paulownia wood), alongside different nutritionalsources using a new robust constructed yeast strain for xylose and glucose co-consumptionisolated from industrial environment able to withstand harsh environments.