Enzymatic hydrolysis and fermentability of corn stover pretreated by lactic acid and/or acetic acid

Four different pretreatments with and without addition of low concentration organic acids were carried out on corn stover at 195 °C for 15 min. The highest xylan recovery of 81.08% was obtained after pretreatment without acid catalyst and the lowest of 58.78% after pretreatment with both acetic and lactic acid. Glucan recovery was less sensitive to the pretreatment conditions than xylan recovery. The pretreatment with acetic and lactic acid yielded the highest glucan recovery of 95.66%. The glucan recoveries of the other three pretreatments varied between 83.92% and 94.28%. Fermentability tests were performed on liquors obtained from all pretreatments and there were no inhibition effect found in any of the liquors. Simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) of water-insoluble solids (WIS) showed that a high ethanol yield of 88.7% of the theoretical based on glucose in the raw material was obtained following pretreatment at 195 °C for 15 min with acetic acid employed. The estimated total ethanol production was 241.1 kg/ton raw material by assuming fermentation of both C-6 and C-5, and 0.51 g ethanol/g sugar.