A preliminary assessment of aqueous ethanol pulping of bagasse

SRI has examined the organosolv (organic solvation) pulping of Australian bagasse using technology supplied by Ecopulp. In the process, bagasse is reacted with aqueous ethanol in a digester at elevated temperatures (between 150ºC and 200ºC). The products from the digester are separated using proprietary technology before further processing into a range of saleable products. Test trials were undertaken using two batch digesters; the first capable of pulping about 25 g of wet depithed bagasse and the second, larger samples of about 1.5 kg of wet depithed bagasse. From this study, the unbleached pulp produced from fresh bagasse did not have very good strength properties for the production of corrugated medium for cartons and bleached pulp. In particular, the lignin contents as indicated by the Kappa number for the unbleached pulps are high for making bleached pulp. However, in spite of the high lignin content, it is possible to bleach the pulp to acceptable levels of brightness up to 86.6 % ISO. The economics were assessed for three tier pricing (namely low, medium and high price). The economic return for a plant that produces 100 air dry t/d of brownstock pulp is satisfactory for both high and medium pricing levels of pricing. The outcomes from the project justify that work should continue through to either pilot plant or upgraded laboratory facility. I:\Support_for_Research\ePrints\DOCUMENTS\4873.doc

Sugar cane bagasse prehydrolysis using hot water

Results are presented on the hot water prehydrolysis of sugar cane bagasse for obtaining ethanol by fermentation. The experimental study consisted of the determination of the effect of temperature and time of prehydrolysis on the extraction of hemicelluloses, with the objective of selecting the best operating conditions that lead to increased yield of extraction with a low formation of inhibitors. The study, carried out in a pilot plant scale rotational digester, using a 3² experimental design at temperatures of 150-190ºC and times of 60-90 min, showed that it is possible to perform the hot water prehydrolysis process between 180-190ºC in times of 60-82 min, yielding concentrations of xylose > 35 g/L, furfural < 2.5 g/L, phenols from soluble lignin < 1.5 g/L, and concentrations < 3.0 g/L of hemicelluloses in the cellolignin residue. These parameters of temperature and prehydrolysis time could be used for the study of the later hydrolysis and fermentation stages of ethanol production from sugar cane bagasse

Comparison between continuous and batch processing to produce xylanase by penicillium canescens 10-10c

Penicillium canescens 10-10c strain was cultivated on barley straw hydrolysate as a soluble nutrient source and as inducer for xylanase production. Barley straw hydrolysate was obtained by treatment of barley straw with NaOH or hot water. In shake flask cultures, NaOH treatment was found to increase the biomass production, but was not accompanied by an increase in xylanase production. The best xylanase production (54 U/ml) was observed on hydrolyzed extract from barley straw treated with hot water (100 ºC) for 3 hours. Enzyme production was further improved by scaling up the cultivation process to a 3-L stirred tank bioreactor. For batch cultivations in the bioreactor, the maximum xylanase productivity reached 1.31 and 0.46 U/ml/h, respectively, after 96 and 168 hours of cultivation. However, xylanase productivity reached 3.46 U/ml/h in the continuous culture. These results suggest that xylanase can be produced efficiently by Penicillium canescens 10-10c in continuous culture from an inexpensive source such as barley straw hydrolysate