In a natural resources limited region, cellulose hydrolysate should be used for biodiesel production (for the cultivation of oleaginous microorganism, and following the transesterifacation process). Should cellulose hydrolysate rather be used for bioethanol production? Which route is more environmental-friendly, and which has a higher economic competition?
Steam-explosion is a good candidate in this field, but if you start from different lignocellulosic materials, it is worth producing butanol instead of ethanol, because xyloses can also be used as feed for bacteria to produce butanol, aceton and ethanol. The fuel properties of butanol much more better than the analogous properties of ethanol and the biodiesel produced from butanol and vegetable oils also has better properties as FAMEs.
what do you mean of hydrolisate? is it liquid phase after steam explosion? if so, i will contain more hemicellulose that cellulose. Therefore, after hidrolyzing to sugars you can you P. stipitis etc to convert 5 ring sugars to ethanol
It seems butanol could be a suitable choice than ethanol. Nevertheless, the toxicity of butanol make the titer hardly over 20 g/L. That mean if you need to get the pure butanol, lots of energy will be spent on the separation and purification process. Will it be worth to do that?
In some natural-resouces limited areas, cellulose is merely a substrate for following biofuels production. In most countries, E5 or B3 are simultaneously adopted being used in the car fuels. Therefore, the decision for cellulose to be used for ethanol or butanol could be very complex, probably not only relying on the technology issues.
More specific to your question, Cellulose hydrolysate is for bioethanol production from economical, environmental and social point of view.
I think cellulose hydrolysate is a sugar rich solution. You can use it as a carbon source for microbial growth or fermentation. If you need biodiesel for your engine, it is reasonably enough to use it for cultivating oleaginous micro-organisms; as well for ethanol you can use it for yeast fermentation. In my opinion, the most important concern is how to produce sugars from lignocellulosic efficiently; currently we need pre-treatment, enzymatic hydrolysis, or even detoxification if the pre-treatment generates toxic compounds. These all are cost-extensive.
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