The fermentation efficiency exhibited by Saccharomyces cerevisiae on Sugarcane bagasse hydrolysate, by analyzing the effects of pre-treatment and detoxification

Abstract

In this study, the possibility of increasing fermentation efficiency of Saccharomyces cerevisiae on sugarcane bagasse (a type of lignocellulosic waste) was analyzed. Sugarcane bagasse was subjected to hydrothermal and acidic pre-treatment. Next, the enzymatic hydrolysis of raw biomass and each pre-treated biomass was performed using CellicCtec® enzymatic complex to obtain sugarcane hydrolysate, hydrothermal hydrolysate and acidic hydrolysate. Next, these were fermented by S. cerevisiae to check if the by-products of enzymatic hydrolysis, furfural and acetic acid had an inhibitory effect on fermentation efficiency. Next, each pre-treated biomass was subjected to detoxification involving activated charcoal. Each detoxified biomass was tested for fermentation efficiency. The lignocellulosic composition for sugarcane hydrolysate, hydrothermal hydrolysate and acidic hydrolysate, varied significantly, and were found to be, for cellulose 36.7%, 27.7% and 63.7% respectively; for hemicellulose 22.2%, 4.4% and 12% respectively; and for lignin 21.2%, 27.7% and 28.7% respectively. The presence of furfural and acetic acid had a strong influence on the fermentation efficiency of S. cerevisiae, and affected the consumption of sugars in each biomass by more than 90%. Further, we found that the detoxification process increased fermentation efficiency by 12.7% for the hydrothermal hydrolysate while for the acidic hydrolysate no significant difference was observed. This study showed that fermentation with greater efficiency is viable through the combined use of hydrothermal pre-treatment and detoxification. This combination of methods also causes less pollution as compared with the method involving acid pre-treatment due to the reduced number of effluents produced.

Keywords

• Lignocellulosic feedstock
• inhibitors
• ethanol
• degradation products.