Orange Bagasse Pellets as a Carbon Source for Biobutanol Production.

Abstract

Due to the environmental concerns, the conversion of lignocellulosic waste can be the key to produce bioproducts and biofuels such as butanol. This study aimed to present and evaluate orange bagasse pellets (OBP) as a carbon source to produce butan-1-ol production via ABE fermentation using Clostridium beijerinckii. These bagasse pellets were characterized, holocellulose (18.99%), alfacellulose (5.37%), hemicellulose (13.62%), lignin (6.16%), pectin (7.21%), protein (3.14%), and was tested under three different pretreatments, which were the following: (a) ultrasound, (b) autohydrolysis, and (c) acid-diluted hydrolysis followed by enzymatic hydrolysis to verify an amount of fermentable total reducing sugars. ANOVA was used and pretreatments followed by enzymatic hydrolysis do not enhance a significant amount of available sugars compared to raw bagasse. The ABE fermentation was carried out in batch reactors at 37°C under agitation of 160rpm and anaerobic conditions, using OBP without treatment followed by enzymatic hydrolysis. Using a non-mutant microorganism, the fermentation achieved butyric acid yields of 3762.68mgL-1 for control and 2488.82mgL-1 for OBP and the butanol production was 63.86mgL-1 and 196.80mgL-1 for OBP and the control (glucose) assay, respectively. The results of this solvent's production have shown that OBP has the potential for ABE fermentation and a promising feedstock.