Concentrated Acid Impregnation, Hydrolysis, and Fermentation of Reed to Ethanol

The technical feasibility of bioethanol production from reed, energy crop was evaluated by way of a simple acid treatment at a low temperature. The main goal of this study was to investigate the effect of various acid-to-biomass ratios, impregnation durations, and hydrolysis periods on conversion yield of reed to monomeric sugars and inhibitors production. As a result, the maximum glucan and xylan conversion yield, 90% and 95%, respectively, was obtained at 2:1 acid-to-biomass ratio, 5-h impregnation, and 2-h hydrolysis. The extreme acidity and increase in retention time under high temperature were the main factors to increase inhibitor concentration. Fermentation of reed-derived hydrolysate with Saccharomyces cerevisiae yielded 0.45 g-ethanol/g-glucose which is lower than that of the reference fermentation (0.49 g/g) due to inhibitors; HMF, furfural, acetic acid, and formic acid.