Potential for biofuels from the biomass of prickly pear cladodes: Challenges for bioethanol and biogas production in dry areas

Simultaneous saccharification and fermentation of cactus pear biomass—evaluation of using different pretreatments

“…The solution was mixed with lignocellulosic material (4%, w/v) in a 5-L beaker and stirred with an impeller at 100 rpm at room temperature for 1 h. Due to the heat released by the lignin oxidation, the mixture temperature tends to increase during the pretreatment and typically exceeds 80 • C. However, no temperature control strategy was used. The pretreatment in alkaline medium was carried out at 121 • C (same temperature reported in the literature for cactus pear (Kuloyo et al, 2014;Santos et al, 2016)) for 30 min using a 0.5% NaOH solution (w/v) containing 10% (w/v) lignocellulosic material. The acidic pretreatment was performed using a 0.5% (w/v) sulphuric acid solution containing 10% (w/v) lignocellulosic biomass and by exposing the mixture to a temperature of 121 • C for 30 min.…”

“…N. cochenillifera is more nutritious and appreciated by cattle but exhibits lower drought resistance. The moisture content of fresh biomass has been reported in the literature to be between 88 and 95% (Kuloyo et al, 2014;Santos et al, 2016).…”

“…Recent studies have investigated the application of the cactus biomass in the production of biofuels including lignocellulosic ethanol (Kuloyo et al, 2014;Santos et al, 2016). However, further analysis of lignocellulosic biomass composition and the effect of different pretreatment methods on the fibres are still required to determine the biomass potential for ethanol production.…”

“…Reduction in production costs can be achieved by using regionally cultivated biomass due to the important contribution of the transportation cost of low bulk density biomass on the final product (Haque et al, 2014). Therefore, cactus pear represents a potential source for biofuel production in arid and semi-arid regions in the world including northeast Brazil (Santos et al, 2016).…”

“…Cactus pear, originally from Mexico , has been cultivated in arid and semi-arid regions of Brazil since the late 19th century (Santos et al, 2016). In northeast Brazil, one can find three main species: two from the genus Opuntia (O. ficus indica and Opuntia sp.)…”