Improved ethanol production through anaerobic thermophilic co-culture from various carbohydrates

Lignocellulosic biomass offers a great potential as a bio-fuel resource due to their abundance and high conversion potential. Consolidate Bioprocess Process (CBP) fermentation with proper microbes is a promising solution offering the potential for higher efficiency and lower production cost compared to other conversion processes. The advantages of integrating both C. themocellum and C. thermolacticum into the CBP fermentation on the ethanol and acetate formation under pH 5-10 on various saccharides were studied. The major saccharides included glucose, cellobiose, and xylose. The interaction among pH, substrates, and initial ethanol level to the solvent production was elucidated. A higher starting pH and higher initial ethanol level were preferred in the co-culture anaerobic fermentation to obtain maximum ethanol yield. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the 2011 AIChE Annual Meeting (Minneapolis, MN 10/16-21/2011).