Impact of Furfural on Rapid Ethanol Production Using a Membrane Bioreactor
Artikel i vetenskaplig tidskrift, 2013

A membrane bioreactor was developed to counteract the inhibition effect of furfural in ethanol production. Furfural, a major inhibitor in lignocellulosic hydrolyzates, is a highly toxic substance which is formed from pentose sugars released during the acidic degradation of lignocellulosic materials. Continuous cultivations with complete cell retention were performed at a high dilution rate of 0.5 h(-1). Furfural was added directly into the bioreactor by pulse injection or by addition into the feed medium to obtain furfural concentrations ranging from 0.1 to 21.8 g L-1. At all pulse injections of furfural, the yeast was able to convert the furfural very rapidly by in situ detoxification. When injecting 21.8 g L-1 furfural to the cultivation, the yeast converted it by a specific conversion rate of 0.35 g g(-1) h(-1). At high cell density, Saccharomyces cerevisiae could tolerate very high furfural levels without major changes in the ethanol production. During the continuous cultures when up to 17.0 g L-1 furfural was added to the inlet medium, the yeast successfully produced ethanol, whereas an increase of furfural to 18.6 and 20.6 g L-1 resulted in a rapidly decreasing ethanol production and accumulation of sugars in the permeate. This study show that continuous ethanol fermentations by total cell retention in a membrane bioreactor has a high furfural tolerance and can conduct rapid in situ detoxification of medium containing high furfural concentrations.

Saccharomyces cerevisiae

membrane bioreactor

cross-flow filtration

furfural conversion kinetics

ethanol

Författare

Päivi Ylitervo

Chalmers, Kemi- och bioteknik, Industriell Bioteknik

Carl Johan Franzén

Chalmers, Kemi- och bioteknik, Industriell Bioteknik

Mohammad Taherzadeh Esfahani

Högskolan i Borås

Energies

1996-1073 (ISSN) 19961073 (eISSN)

Vol. 6 3 1604-1617

Drivkrafter

Hållbar utveckling

Ämneskategorier

Industriell bioteknik

Kemi

Styrkeområden

Energi

Livsvetenskaper och teknik (2010-2018)

DOI

10.3390/en6031604

Mer information

Senast uppdaterat

2018-03-08