Ethanol production from xylose by Fusarium oxysporum and the optimization of culture conditions

Abstract

Bioethanol is the most commonly used renewable biofuel as an alternative to fossil fuels. Many microbial strains can convert lignocellulosics into bioethanol. However, very few natural strains with a high capability of fermenting pentose sugars and simultaneously utilizing various sugars have been reported. In this study, fermentation of sugar by Fusarium oxysporum G was performed for the production of ethanol to improve the performance of the fermentation process. The influences of pH, substrate concentration, temperature, and rotation speed on ethanol fermentation are investigated. The three significant factors (pH, substrate concentration, and temperature) are further optimized by quadratic orthogonal rotation regression combination design and response surface methodology (RSM). The optimum conditions are pH 4, 40 g/L of xylose, 32 °C, and 110 rpm obtained through single factor experiment design. Finally, it is found that the maximum ethanol production (10.0 g/L) can be achieved after 7 d of fermentation under conditions of pH 3.87, 45.2 g/L of xylose, and 30.4 °C. Glucose is utilized preferentially for the glucose–xylose mixture during the initial fermentation stage, but glucose and xylose are synchronously consumed without preference in the second period. These findings are significant for the potential industrial application of this strain for bioethanol production.

Keywords:

• Ethanol
• fermentation
• response surface methodology
• arabinose
• xylose

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Dr. Bing-yan Xie for providing strains of Fusarium oxysporum.

Declaration of interest

This work was supported by a grant from the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (863 Program) (No. 2012AA101804).