Lignocellulosic butanol production from Napier grass using semi-simultaneous saccharification fermentation.

Napier grass is a potential feedstock for biofuel production because of its strong adaptability and wide availability. Compositional analysis has been done on Napier grass which was collected from a local area of Taiwan. By comparing acid- and alkali-pretreatment, it was found that the alkali-pretreatment process is favorable for Napier grass. An overall glucose yield of 0.82g/g-glucose can be obtained with the combination of alkali-pretreatment (2.5wt% NaOH, 8wt% sample loading, 121°C, and a reaction time of 40min) and enzymatic hydrolysis (40FPU/g-substrate). Semi-simultaneous saccharification fermentation (sSSF) was carried out, where enzymatic hydrolysis and ABE fermentation were operated in the same batch. It was found that after 24-h hydrolysis, followed by 96-h fermentation, the butanol and acetone concentrations reached 9.45 and 4.85g/L, respectively. The butanol yield reached 0.22g/g-sugar. Finally, the efficiency of butanol production from Napier grass was calculated at 31%.