Biobutanol from Lignocellulosic Wastes

Abstract

The perceived inability to economically provide conventional petroleum to meet the growing energy demands is facing a diverse and broad set of challenges. The major technical and commercial drawbacks of the existing biofuels (bioethanol or biodiesel) have prompted the continuing development of more advanced biofuels such as biobutanol. Acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) fermentation is an old process which recently attracted new interests for the production of butanol as an advanced biofuel. Efficient use of low cost lignocellulosic wastes as a carbon source for ABE fermentation can be a proper approach for the economical production of biobutanol. This chapter focuses on the utilization of lignocellulosic materials in ABE fermentation process. It explains the ABE fermentation process especially the processes that were economically used in the Soviet Union, China, and South Africa in the twentieth century. It also summarizes different technologies that have been suggested for the utilization of lignocelluloses for biobutanol production.

Autohydrolysis: A promising pretreatment for the improvement of acetone, butanol, and ethanol production from woody materials

“…The combination of dilute acid hydrolysis with enzymatic hydrolysis has been extensively used for ABE production (Amiri et al, 2015). However, the overall hydrolysates obtained from combined dilute acid and enzymatic hydrolysis are not suitable for ABE production without an additional detoxification process (Ezeji et al, 2007;Sun and Liu, 2012).…”

Integration of Autohydrolysis and Organosolv Delignification for Efficient Acetone, Butanol, and Ethanol Production and Lignin Recovery

“…In addition, the hemicellulose fraction of lignocelluloses can be hydrolyzed to sugars and oligomers through a relatively low cost physiochemical processing. However, this part, 25%–30% of lignocelluloses, is ignored in most processes for ethanol production, in which typical ethanol-producing microorganisms are unable to ferment hemicellulose-derived pentoses …”

“…In recent years, acetone–butanol–ethanol (ABE) fermentation by solvent-producing Clostridia has been suggested for the production of biobutanol from lignocelluloses. , As a biofuel, butanol has superior characteristics, in comparison to ethanol. ABE fermentation is one of the first industrially applied bioprocesses that had attracted renewed interest by the time butanol was introduced as an advanced biofuel. , In addition, having the ability to uptake a wide range of sugars and oligomers, the solvent-producing Clostridia can utilize both cellulose and hemicellulose fractions of lignocelluloses for butanol production . However, the effect of inhibitors on the solvent-producing Clostridia is more destructive than their effects on the ethanol-producing strains .…”

Nesterenkonia sp. strain F, a halophilic bacterium producing acetone, butanol and ethanol under aerobic conditions

“…Depending on the cultivation conditions, 9–24 g/l of glucose were consumed by the microorganism, leading to different amounts of ABE, from less than 1 to 482 mg/l. The production of acetone, butanol, ethanol, acetic acid and butyric acid by branched fermentation is a strategy to optimize energy production under anaerobic conditions as an energy-stressed situations 26 . As shown in Fig.…”

“…strain F are shown in Table 3 , and are compared with those of Clostridium spp. 26 . Based on the presence of these enzymes, the apparent metabolic pathways of fermentation used by Nesterenkonia sp.…”