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Project

Development of a high temperature SSF reactor for the production of bio-ethanol from lignocellulose.

Lignocellulosic materials will be an important feedstock for the production of bio-ethanol in the future. Using the current technologies, this components are more difficult to convert into ethanol than the classicalfeedstock. The purpose of this project is to develop a cost-effective production process which can convert lignocellulose to ethanol with the aid of enzymes and fermentation.  To realize this, the different production steps like chemical pre-treatment, enzymatic hydrolysis andfermentation of C5 and C6 sugars are studied and geared to one another.After chemical pre-treatment with different diluted acid or basic reagents at temperatures < 140 °C and enzymatic hydrolysis with theaid of commercial enzyme mixtures, the released C5 and C6 sugars are fermented to ethanol using several micro-organisms. Subsequently an attempt is made to run the saccharification and fermentation of C5 and C6 sugars simultaneously and at high temperatures (45-70°C). For the development of the process raw materials like straw, hay, paper and poplar are used serving as model for specific energy crops and waste streams.
Date:1 Oct 2008 →  15 Sep 2013
Keywords:pentose sugar, lignocellulose, bio-ethanol
Disciplines:Biomaterials engineering, Biological system engineering, Biomechanical engineering, Other (bio)medical engineering, Environmental engineering and biotechnology, Industrial biotechnology, Other biotechnology, bio-engineering and biosystem engineering, Food sciences and (bio)technology, Other chemical sciences, Nutrition and dietetics, Agricultural animal production, Microbiology, Systems biology, Laboratory medicine
Project type:PhD project