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Butanol Production from Lignocellulosic Biomass and Agriculture Residues by Acetone-Butanol-Ethanol Fermentation

Dong, Jie
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1404312445

Abstract Details

2014, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.
Butanol is an important intermediate and solvent in the chemical industry. Moreover, compared to ethanol, butanol has higher energy density and lower vapor pressure, so butanol is also considered a preferred fuel additive or even a potential replacement for gasoline. As the oil price rises, the cost of producing butanol from petrochemical processes increases dramatically. Therefore, more and more research is being done on ways to produce butanol from fermentation of renewable resources. It is necessary to reduce the cost of fermentation-derived butanol in order to make it competitive with petrochemically produced butanol. One of the most influential economy factors in producing butanol by fermentation is the cost of substrate. In this research, in order to reduce the cost of substrate, different types of lignocellulosic biomass, such as sugarcane bagasse, soybean hull, cotton stalk and corn fibers were utilized as substrates in ABE (Acetone-Butanol-Ethanol) fermentation. However, lignocellulosic biomass cannot be used by the solventogenic clostridia directly and needs to be hydrolyzed first. The hydrolysis process usually produces some inhibitory compounds that could severely inhibit bacteria growth and butanol production. Therefore, the inhibitors in the hydrolysate must be reduced or removed by certain detoxification processes before fermentation. To make the detoxification process more efficient, a better understanding of these inhibitors is needed. In this research, the effects of 9 inhibitors derived from the degradation of carbohydrate and lignin on the fermentation kinetics of several solventogenic Clostridia strains were investigated at various concentration levels. The inhibitors' effects on butanol and butyraldehyde dehydrogenase activities were also investigated. Among the 9 inhibitors studied, four lignin derived inhibitors (syringaldehyde, ferulic acid, vanillin, and p-coumaric acid) were found to strongly inhibit cell growth and butanol and butyraldehyde dehydrogenases. These four phenolic inhibitors were further tested in C. tyrobutyricum mutants. They were very toxic to one mutant overexpressing ctfAB and adhE2 genes, but they had no effects on the mutant overexpressing only adhE2 gene. Therefore, the phenolic compounds are inhibitors to CoA-transferase expressed by ctfAB. This was further confirmed by their toxicity to C. beijerinckii and C. acetobutylicum. This also explained the toxicity of corn steep liquor as nitrogen source in the butanol fermentation. Then four lignocellulosic biomass, cotton stalk, corn fiber, soybean hull and sugarcane bagasse, were pretreated with acid and then hydrolyzed by enzymes. The obtained hydrolysates were further detoxified to remove the inhibitors in them. The detoxified hydrolysates were then used as carbon source in ABE fermentation of Clostridium. All hydrolysates gave very high butanol production. The acid and alkali pretreatments followed with removing the supernatant and washing before enzymatic hydrolysis were studied, and their effects on biomass compositions and subsequent fermentation were also studied and compared. Other than lignocellulosic biomass, another possibility for substrates is some other agriculture residues generated during the bioprocessing. In this study, four of these agriculture residues were investigated: cassava bagasse, Jerusalem artichoke, soy molasses and soybean meal. Starch based cassava bagasse only needs enzyme (glucoamylase) hydrolysis. Its hydrolysate contained no toxic inhibitors and performed very well in ABE fermentation. Inulin based Jerusalem artichoke was hydrolyzed only by dilute acid. But its hydrolysate contained high concentration of ferulic acid which is an inhibitor to ABE fermentation. Soy molasses contain mainly oligosaccharides and can be hydrolyzed by a-galactosidase. But in the ABE fermentation using soy molasses hydrolysate, the butanol production was partly inhibited. Soybean meal was also proved to be a good nitrogen source after the acid hydrolysis. The detailed capital and operating cost of large scale butanol plants were also analyzed.
Shang Tian Yang (Advisor)
246 p.
Chemical Engineering

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Citations

  • Dong, J. (2014). Butanol Production from Lignocellulosic Biomass and Agriculture Residues by Acetone-Butanol-Ethanol Fermentation [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1404312445

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Dong, Jie. Butanol Production from Lignocellulosic Biomass and Agriculture Residues by Acetone-Butanol-Ethanol Fermentation. 2014. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1404312445.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Dong, Jie. "Butanol Production from Lignocellulosic Biomass and Agriculture Residues by Acetone-Butanol-Ethanol Fermentation." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1404312445

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1404312445
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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.