Immobilized-Cell Hollow Fiber Membrane Bioreactor for Lignocellulosic Bioethanol Production

Abstract

Production of bioethanol from lignocellulosic residues has attracted considerable research interest in the past decade, as lignocellulosic residues are the most abundant renewable material and they have the potential to serve as a sustainable feedstock for biofuel production. In the fermentation of lignocellulosic biomass, the microorganisms must be robust to the growth inhibitors resulting from the pretreatment of the biomass, that they can effectively convert high sugars concentrations, while they can concomitantly tolerate high ethanol concentration. Furthermore, for economical feasibility of lignocellulosic bioethanol, both glucose and xylose in the pretreatment hydrolysate must to be converted to bioethanol. These challenges to lignocellulosic biomass fermentation are more severe when fermentation is carried out at high-loading solid and cells are exposed to much higher stresses from the inhibitory present in the fermentation broth. In this study, an immobilized-cell hollow fiber membrane bioreactor (IHFMB) was developed to mitigate these challenges and facilitate high throughput fermentation of lignocellulosic biomass to bioethanol.