Abstract
BackgroundOne of the sustainable development goals focuses on the biomass-based production as a replacement for fossil-based commodities. A novel feedstock with vast potentials is tunicate biomass, which can be pretreated and fermented in a similar way to lignocellulose. Ciona intestinalis is a marine filter feeder that is cultivated to produce fish feed. While the inner tissue body is used for feed production, the surrounding tunic remains as a cellulose-rich by-product, which can be further separated into outer and inner tunic. Ethanol production from organosolv-pretreated whole-tunic biomass was recently validated. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the potential of organosolv pretreated outer-tunic biomass for the production of biofuels and cellobiose that is a disaccharide with prebiotic potential.ResultsAs a result, 41.4 g/L of ethanol by Saccharomyces cerevisiae, corresponding to a 90.2% theoretical yield, was achieved under the optimal conditions when the tunicate biomass was pretreated at 195 °C for 60 min at a liquid-to-solid ratio of 50. In addition, cellobiose production by enzymatic hydrolysis of the pretreated tunicate biomass was demonstrated with a maximum conversion yield of 49.7 wt. %.ConclusionsThe utilisation of tunicate biomass offers an eco-friendly and sustainable alternative for value-added biofuels and chemicals. The cultivation of tunicate biomass in shallow coastal sea improves the quality of the water and ensures sustainable production of fish feed. Moreover, there is no competition for arable land, which leaves the latter available for food and feed production.
Highlights
One of the sustainable development goals focuses on the biomass-based production as a replacement for fossil-based commodities
Production of second-generation biofuels is steadily moving from pilot scale to commercial scale [4,5,6]. Even though these biofuels are generated from non-edible biomass, including waste vegetable oils, municipal waste, and lignocellulosic materials, they still put a burden on arable land that could be used by the food and feed industry or for forestry [7]
In our previous study [9], the tunicate biomass validated as a new potential feedstock for second-generation biofuel production with the considerable advantage compare to standard second-generation biofuels which is the independence on the arable land
Summary
One of the sustainable development goals focuses on the biomass-based production as a replacement for fossil-based commodities. Production of second-generation biofuels is steadily moving from pilot scale to commercial scale [4,5,6] Even though these biofuels are generated from non-edible biomass, including waste vegetable oils, municipal waste, and lignocellulosic materials, they still put a burden on arable land that could be used by the food and feed industry or for forestry [7]. Ciona intestinalis is a marine filter feeder tunicate, whose body consists of two main parts: the inner body tissue and the surrounding tunic [10]. These tunicates can be cultivated in large quantities and harvested at 10 tonnes per day. Similar results were reached with different types of algae Laminaria japonica, Gracilaria sp., and Saccharina japonica where the ethanol concentration was between 4.9 and 10.9 g/L [15,16,17]
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