Alternative Lime Pretreatment of Corn Stover for Second-Generation Bioethanol Production

In this work, a delignification process, using lime (Ca(OH)2) as an alternative alkali, was evaluated to improve enzymatic saccharification of corn stover cellulose, with the final goal obtaining second-generation bioethanol. For that, experimental design conducted in order assay effect temperature, loading, and time on fractionation susceptibility cellulose. Under conditions evaluated, pretreatment selective for recovery cellulose (average 91%) xylan 75.3%) solid phase. addition, operating mild conditions, up 40% also attained. On other hand, maximal cellulose-to-glucose conversion (CGCMAX) 89.5% achieved solid, resulting from treatment carried out at 90 °C 5 h loading 0.4 g Ca(OH)2/g stover. Finally, under selected pretreatment, 28.7 g/L (or 3.6% v/v) bioethanol produced (corresponding 72.4% ethanol conversion) by simultaneous fermentation. Hence, based alkali proposed allowed successful production biofuel important abundant agro-industrial residue