Improvement of bioethanol production from corn by ultrasound and microwave pretreatments

Abstract

Bioethanol production by simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) of cornmeal using Saccharomyces cerevisiae var. ellipsoideus yeast in a batch system with prior ultrasound or microwave treatment was studied. The SSF process kinetics was determined. Both pretreatments improved ethanol production during the SSF process. The ultrasound and microwave pretreatments increased the maximum ethanol concentration produced in the SSF process for 11.15 and 13.40%, respectively. The maximum ethanol concentration of 9.87% (wt/wt) and the percentage of theoretical ethanol yield of 90.80% were achieved after 32 hr of the SSF of corn meal with prior microwave treatment. The application of microwave pretreatment resulted in higher increase in ethanol concentration compared to the ultrasound pretreatment. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the 19th International Congress of Chemical and Process Engineering and 7th European Congress of Chemical Engineering (Prague, Czech Republic 8/28/2010-9/1/2010).