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The enzymatic starch hydrolysis and bioethanol production from a variety of sweet potato developed for bioenergy purposes (K 9807.1) on the basis of its high starch yields, was studied. Drying at 55°C and 95°C of sweet potato neither affected the sugar content nor the starch enzymatic hydrolysis efficiency. Simultaneous saccharification and ethanol fermentations for dry matter ratio of sweet potato to water from 1:8 to 1:2 (w/v) were studied. Fresh sweet potato and dried at 55°C (flour) were assayed. At ratios of 1:8, similar results for fresh sweet potato and flour in terms of ethanol concentration (38–45 g/L), fermentation time (16 h) and sugar conversion (~ 100%) were found. At higher dry matter content, faster full conversion were observed using flour. A higher ratio than that for fresh sweet potato (1:2.2) did not improve the final ethanol concentration (100 g/L) and yields. High ethanol yields were found for VHG (very high gravity) conditions. The sweet potato used is an attractive raw matter for fuel ethanol, since up to 4800 L ethanol per hectare can be obtained.

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Eucalyptus spp. residues of paper industry are a potential lignocellulosic raw material for production of second-generation bioethanol as an alternative to conventional production from cereal crops. Studying the behavior at 40 ºC of a commercial cellulase (Sunson), Eucalyptus sawdust saccharification was carried out under two pH conditions. With the aim to evaluate the bioethanol production from Eucalyptus wood, a strategy combining saccharification and Simultaneous Saccharification and Fermentation (SSF) was undertaken at 40 ºC with a thermotolerant Saccharomyces cerevisiae with different substrate and inoculum concentrations, and different nitrogen sources. At last, the process was carried out in optimal conditions with Saccharomyces cerevisiae M522 and SacSV-10. Saccharification produced more free glucose at pH 5, reaching a maximum of 1.5 g/L. Encouraging results were obtained with 500 mg/L of ammonium sulphate as a nitrogen source and 10 % v/v initial inoculum at 106 cfu/mL concentration. Yeast SacSV-10 was not inhibited by phenols present in the culture media using a wood concentration of 10 g/L, but when the solids concentration was increased, the bioprocess yield was compromised. When the process was carried out in optimal conditions the bioethanol production, expressed as the conversion percentage of cellulose to ethanol, was 71.5 % and 73.6 % for M522 and the mutant strain respectively. The studied properties of the mutant strain provide added value to it, which pose new challenges to national companies dedicated to the production and sale of inputs for bioethanol industry.

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