Continuous Ethanol Production from Concentrated Wood Hydrolysates in an Internal Membrane-Filtration Bioreactor

• DOI: 10.1021/bp990130f
• Publication Date: 2002-07-26T01:53:38Z
• Authors: W.G. Lee; B.G. Park; Y.K. Chang; H.N. Chang; J.S. Lee; S.C. Park
• Keywords: 0106 biological sciences; Bioreactors; 660; Ethanol; Hydrolysis; Temperature; Sterilization; Membranes, Artificial; Saccharomyces cerevisiae; Wood; 01 natural sciences; Filtration; 0105 earth and related environmental sciences

Continuous culture for the production of ethanol from wood hydrolysate was carried out in an internal membrane-filtration bioreactor. The hydrolysate medium was sterilized at a relatively low temperature of 60 degrees C with the intention of reducing the formation of inhibitory compounds during the sterilization. The maximum ethanol concentration and productivity obtained in this study were 76.9 g/L and 16.9 g/L-h, respectively, which were much higher than those (57.2-67 g/L and 0.3-1.0 g/L-h) obtained in batch cultures using hydrolysate media sterilized at 60 degrees C. The productivity was also found to be much higher than that (6.7 g/L-h) obtained in a continuous cell retention culture using a wood hydrolysate sterilized at 121 degrees C. These results show that the internal membrane-filtration bioreactor in combination with low-temperature sterilization could be very effective for ethanol production from wood hydrolysate.