Water hyacinth second-generation ethanol production: a mitigation alternative for an environmental problem

ABSTRACT

Natural fibers are very abundant, especially those derived from water plant as water hyacinth. The water hyacinth, which is rich in cellulosic fiber content, has a great ability to adapt itself to harsh conditions and at very high growth rate. Therefore, it is considered a pest due to environmental and economical damage to water bodies. A proposed alternative to mitigate the excessing water hyacinth problem is to use its biomass aiming the production of second-generation ethanol (2G), using cellulose as feedstock. It was been implemented different methods to optimize the production of 2G from water hyacinth. Two approaches were considered: a separate chemical pretreatment process and two-way processes to enzymatic hydrolysis using separated hydrolysis and fermentation (SHF) or simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF). The chromatography analysis showed that the hydrogen peroxide hydrolysis is the more effective pretreatment and that SSF has the highest productivity. The ethanol output can minimize the water hyacinth removal cost through some economical and environmental return.

摘要

天然纤维非常丰富，尤其是从水植物中提取的水葫芦。水葫芦富含纤维素纤维，具有很强的适应恶劣环境和高生长速率的能力。因此，由于环境和经济对水体的破坏，它被认为是有害生物。一个建议的替代方案以减轻过高的水葫芦问题是利用其生物量为第二代乙醇生产，以纤维素为原料。采用不同的方法优化水葫芦生产第二代乙醇。被认为是两个途径：一个单独的化学预处理和酶解分离的双向过程的水解和发酵（SHF）或同步糖化发酵（SSF）。色谱分析表明，过氧化氢水解是更有效的预处理和SSF具有最高的生产率。乙醇产量可以通过一定的经济效益和环境效益将水葫芦去除成本降至最低。

KEYWORDS:

• Water hyacinth
• second-generation ethanol
• chemical hydrolysis
• enzymatic hydrolysis
• alcoholic fermentation
• biofuel

关键词:

• 水葫芦
• 第二代乙醇
• 化学水解
• 酶法水解
• 酒精发酵
• 生物燃料

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support of FAPESP (2015/21395-9), CNPq, CAPES, and Mr. Fábio Iachel da Silva for the CG analysis.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo [2015/21395-9];