Making Sustainable Biofuels and Sunscreen from Corncobs To Introduce Students to Integrated Biorefinery Concepts and Techniques

• DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.7b00819
• Publication Date: 2018-06-14T13:35:47Z
• Authors: Hua Zhou; Wang Zhan; Liuyang Wang; Lijun Guo; Yun Liu
• Keywords: Cellulosic ethanol; Corncob; Hemicellulose; Enzymatic Hydrolysis

To inspire upper-division undergraduate students to gain a deeper understanding of biorefinery, an experiment related biofuels and lignin-based sunscreen products from corncob was performed in multiple offerings summer-semester class. Specifically, corncobs were pretreated with 1% H2SO4 obtain hemicellulose hydrolysates, which detoxified, followed oleaginous yeast fermentation yield microbial lipids. The lipids chemically transesterified into biodiesel situ by alkali catalyst. Subsequently, dilute acid-pretreated residue enzymatically saccharified release glucose for ethanol production separation hydrolysis fermentation. Finally, the resultant lignin cellulosic valorized make sunscreen. main objectives this work are introduce integrated biorefinery concepts techniques so that they can learn how added-value waste materials evoke students' awareness environmental issues.