14th International Conference on Renewable Resources & Biorefineries
30 May to 1 June 2018, Ghent, Belgium
On 31 May 2018, Monica Fong from INPT, France, presented her work “Study of the temperature and sodium hydroxyde concentration for a cost-effective thermo-mechanico-chemical pretreatment to obtain second generation bioethanol” in an oral presentation. It included results of Monica Fong’s investigation on the extrusion of co-products from the corn industry. With the objective to lower chemical cost by decreasing the use of chemicals, she studied the temperature effect to compensate the decrease of alkaline concentration.The study was carried out using temperatures from 90 °C to 170 °C and concentrations of soda from 4 to 8 %. The efficiency of the pretreatment was evaluated in terms of preservation of cellulose and the glucose and xylose yields. The most interesting results were obtained at 6 % NaOH/SCC ratio; the temperature has a positive effect on the hemicellulose solubilization, however the sugar yield decreased at temperatures higher than 130 °C, indicating a decrease in enzyme accessibility. Through this study, the bioconversion process of sweet corn residues is one step closer to environmental and techno-economic viability.
Monica Fong from INTA, presenting her research results at RRB-14 in Ghent (Foto: RRB-14)
On 1 June 2018, Dr. Aleta Duque from CIEMAT, Spain, presented in Ghent research results from the BABET-REAL5 project in her poster “Determination of the best conditions for the enzymatic hydrolysis of alkaline extruded barley straw”.
Dr. Aleta Duque from CIEMAT in front of her poster in Ghent
In her work the behaviour of two commercial enzyme cocktails (cellulolytic & hemicellulolytic), separated and combined, were evaluated, and the enzyme dose and content of solids in the mix was optimized for the enzymatic hydrolysis of NaOH-extrudated barley straw. It was found out that the solid loads have an important negative influence on the hydrolysis performance. But even in the most unfavourable conditions (25% solid load) a performance of more than 70 % of glucose and xylose conversion could be achieved when using the commercial cellulolytic enzyme cocktail. On the other hand, a high solid load implies a higher concentration of sugars in the medium at the end of the hydrolysis. Consequently, reaching the mentioned performances at high solid content with half of the enzymes added, represents important economic savings and a lower environmental impact of the process.
Link to Spanish report: http://www.ciemat.es/portal.do?IDM=61&NM=2&identificador=1568