Mark Brewer

Industrial scale-up of pH-controlled liquid hot water pretreatment of corn fiber for fuel ethanol production

The pretreatment of cellulose in corn fiber by liquid hot water at 160°C and a pH above 4.0 dissolved 50% of the fiber in 20 min. The pretreatment also enabled the subsequent complete enzymatic hydrolysis of the remaining polysaccharides to monosaccharides. The carbohydrates dissolved by the pretreatment were 80% soluble oligosaccharides and 20% monosaccharides with º1% of the carbohydrates lost to degradation products. Only a minimal amount of protein was dissolved, thus enriching the protein content of the un dissolved material. Replication of laboratory results in an industrial trial at 43 gallons per minute (163 L/min) of fiber slurry with a residence time of 20 min illustrates the utility and practicality of this approach for pretreating corn fiber. The added costs owing to pretreatment, fiber, and hydrolysis are equivalent to less than

Pretreatment of yellow poplar sawdust by pressure cooking in water

0.84/gal of ethanol produced from the fiber. Minimizing monosaccharide formation during pretreatment minimized the formation of degradation products; hence, the resulting sugars were readily fermentable to ethanol by the recombinant hexose and by pentose-fermenting Saccharomyces cerevisiae 424A (LNH-ST) and ethanologenic Escherichia coli at yields >90% of theoretical based on the starting fiber. this cooperative effort and first successful trial opens the door for examining the robustness of the pretreatment system under extended run conditions as well as pretreatment of other cellulose-containing materials using water at controlled pH.

Pretreatment of corn fiber by pressure cooking in water

The pretreatment of yellow poplar wood sawdust using liquid water at temperatures above 220°C enhances enzyme hydrolysis. This paper reviews our prior research and describes the laboratory reactor system currently in use for cooking wood sawdust at temperatures ranging from 220 to 260°C. The wood sawdust at a 6–6.6% solid/liquid slurry was treated in a 2 L, 304 SS, Parr reactor with three turbine propeller agitators and a proportional integral derivative (PID) controller, which controlled temperature within ±1°C. Heat-up times to the final temperatures of 220, 240, or 260°C were achieved in 60–70 min. Hold time at the final temperature was less than 1 min. A serpentine cooling coil, through which tap water was circulated at the completion of the run, cooled the reactor’s contents within 3 min after the maximum temperature was attained. A bottoms port, as well as ports in the reactor’s head plate, facilitated sampling of the slurry and measuring the pH, which changes from an initial value of 5 before cooking to a value of approx 3 after cooking. Enzyme hydrolysis gave 80–90% conversion of cellulose in the pretreated wood to glucose. Simultaneous saccharification and fermentation of washed, pretreated lignocellulose gave an ethanol yield that was 55% of theoretical. Untreated wood sawdust gave less than 5% hydrolysis under the same conditions.

Continuous pH Monitoring During Pretreatment of Yellow Poplar Wood Sawdust by Pressure Cooking in Water

The pretreatment of corn fiber using liquid water at temperatures between 220 and 260°C enhances enzymatic hydrolysis. This paper describes the laboratory reactor system currently in use for cooking of corn fiber at temperatures ranging from 200 to 260°C. The corn fiber at approx 4.4% solid/liquid slurry was treated in a 2-L, 304 SS, Parr reactor with three turbine propeller agitators and a Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID), controller that controlled temperature within ±1°C. Heat-up times to the final temperatures of 220, 240, or 260°C were achieved in 50 to 60 min. Hold time at the final temperature was less than 10 s. A serpentine cooling coil, through which tap water was circulated at the completion of the run, cooled the reactor’s contents to 180°C within 2 min after the maximum temperature was attained. Ports in the reactor’s head plate facilitated sampling of the slurry and monitoring the pH. A continuous pH monitoring system was developed to help observe trends in pH during pretreatment and to assist in the development of a base (2.0M KOH) addition profile to help keep the pH within the range of 5.0 to 7.0. Enzymatic hydrolysis gave 33 to 84% conversion of cellulose in the pretreated fiber to glucose compared to 17% for untreated fiber.

Enzyme conversion of lignocellulosic plant materials for resource recovery in a Controlled Ecological Life Support System.

Yellow poplar wood sawdust consists of 41% cellulose and 19% hemicellulose. The goal of pressure cooking this material in water is to hydrate the more chemically resistive regions of cellulose in order to enhance enzymatic conversion to glucose. Pretreatment can generate organic acids through acid-catalyzed degradation of monosaccharides formed because of acids released from the biomass material or the inherent acidity of the water at temperatures above 160°C The resulting acids will further promote the acid-catalyzed degradation of monomers that cause both a reduction in the yield and the formation of fermentation inhibitors such as hydroxymethyl furfural and furfural. A continuous pH-monitoring system was developed to help characterize the trends in pH during pretreatment and to assist in the development of a base (2.0 M KOH) addition profile to help keep the pH within a specified range in order to reduce any catalytic degradation and the formation of any monosac-charide degradation products during pretreatment. The results of this work are discussed.

Sorptive recovery of dilute ethanol from distillation column bottoms stream

A large amount of inedible plant material composed primarily of the carbohydrate materials cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin is generated as a result of plant growth in a Controlled Ecological Life-Support System (CELSS). Cellulose is a linear homopolymer of glucose, which when properly processed will yield glucose, a valuable sugar because it can be added directly to human diets. Hemicellulose is a heteropolymer of hexoses and pentoses that can be treated to give a sugar mixture that is potentially a valuable fermentable carbon source. Such fermentations yield desirable supplements to the edible products from hydroponically-grown plants such as rapeseed, soybean, cowpea, or rice. Lignin is a three-dimensionally branched aromatic polymer, composed of phenyl propane units, which is susceptible to bioconversion through the growth of the white rot fungus, Pluerotus ostreatus. Processing conditions, that include both a hot water pretreatment and fungal growth and that lead to the facile conversion of plant polysaccharides to glucose, are presented.

Device for packing chromatographic stationary phases

Modern ethanol distillation processes are designed to ensure removal of all ethanol from the column bottoms, i.e., to levels <100ppm ethanol, and utilize substantial str ipping steam to achieve this result. An alternate approach using sorption was attempted as a means to reduce energy requirements in the stripping section, and thereby reduce cost. Adsorbents tested for use in such an application showed that carbonaceous supports, in particular Ambersorb XEN 572, gave alcohol-free water as effluent when a 1% (w/w) starting ethanol concentration was passed downflow at 1 bed vol/h over a fixed-bed adsorber at 70°C. Regeneration was readily achieved at 70-90°C using hot air, vacuum, superheated steam, or hot water to strip the ethanol from the column, and yielded ethanol streams containing a maximum of 5.9% alcohol, with average concentrations of 2.5-3.5% depending on the regeneration method used. These experimentally determined operating conditions combined with distillation energy calculations have enabled development of a process concept for sorptive concentration of dilute ethanol which is more energy efficient than distillation alone. The combination of existing distillation and corn grit drying technologies, with sorptive recovery of dilute ethanol (from the column bottoms) shows promise of recovering a fuel grade, 99.4% ethanol product from a 4.5% ethanol broth with an energy requirement of 23,100 BTU/gal. The potential energy saving of 3600 BTU/gal over distillation alone corresponds to 1.8¢ /gal, and provides motivation for further examination of this approach in reducing costs of ethanol production from biomass.