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Bioethanol Production from UK Seaweeds: Investigating Variable Pre-treatment and Enzyme Hydrolysis Parameters

Kostas, ET; White, DA; Cook, DJ; (2020) Bioethanol Production from UK Seaweeds: Investigating Variable Pre-treatment and Enzyme Hydrolysis Parameters. BioEnergy Research , 13 pp. 271-285. 10.1007/s12155-019-10054-1. Green open access

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Abstract

This study describes the method development for bioethanol production from three species of seaweed. Laminaria digitata, Ulva lactuca and for the first time Dilsea carnosa were used as representatives of brown, green and red species of seaweed, respectively. Acid thermo-chemical and entirely aqueous (water) based pre-treatments were evaluated, using a range of sulphuric acid concentrations (0.125–2.5 M) and solids loading contents (5–25 % [w/v]; biomass: reactant) and different reaction times (5–30 min), with the aim of maximising the release of glucose following enzyme hydrolysis. A pre-treatment step for each of the three seaweeds was required and pre-treatment conditions were found to be specific to each seaweed species. Dilsea carnosa and U. lactuca were more suited with an aqueous (water-based) pre-treatment (yielding 125.0 and 360.0 mg of glucose/g of pre-treated seaweed, respectively), yet interestingly non pre-treated D. carnosa yielded 106.4 g g^{-1} glucose. Laminaria digitata required a dilute acid thermo-chemical pre-treatment in order to liberate maximal glucose yields (218.9 mg glucose/g pre-treated seaweed). Fermentations with S. cerevisiae NCYC2592 of the generated hydrolysates gave ethanol yields of 5.4 g L^{−1}, 7.8 g L^{−1} and 3.2 g L^{−1} from D. carnosa, U. lactuca and L. digitata, respectively. This study highlighted that entirely aqueous based pre-treatments are effective for seaweed biomass, yet bioethanol production alone may not make such bio-processes economically viable at large scale.

Type: Article
Title: Bioethanol Production from UK Seaweeds: Investigating Variable Pre-treatment and Enzyme Hydrolysis Parameters
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1007/s12155-019-10054-1
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12155-019-10054-1
Language: English
Additional information: © The Author(s) 2019. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). `
Keywords: Macroalgae, Pre-treatment, Bioethanol, L, digitata, D, carnosa, U, lactuca
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Dept of Biochemical Engineering
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10085496
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