Continuous ethanol production from dilute-acid hydrolyzates : detoxification and fermentation strategy

Abstract: The production of fuel ethanol from cellulosic biomass is of growing interest around the world. Lignocellulosic residuals can be used to produce transportation fuel, with the overall process having little net production of greenhouse gases. Lignocellulosic materials are available as a by-product of many industrial processes and agricultural materials, or can potentially be produced from dedicated energy crops. The production of ethanol from lignocellulosic materials includes hydrolysis which breaks the cellulose and hemicellulose polymers to fermentable sugars, followed by cultivation which converts the sugars into ethanol, and finally a separation process where ethanol purification is carried out to produce fuel ethanol. However, some byproducts such as furan compounds are released during chemical hydrolysis and inhibit the yeast during cultivation. This work contributes a solution to overcome these problems especially for a continuous process which is economically superior. Hydrolyzate detoxification using lime (