Enhancement of Ethanol Production via Hyper Thermal Acid Hydrolysis and Co-Fermentation Using Waste Seaweed from Gwangalli Beach, Busan, Korea.

The waste seaweed from Gwangalli beach, Busan, Korea was utilized as biomass for ethanol production. (brown seaweed, Mojaban in Korean name) comprised 72% of the biomass. The optimal hyper thermal acid hydrolysis conditions were obtained as 8% slurry contents, 138 mM sulfuric acid, and 160°C of treatment temperature for 10 min with a low content of inhibitory compounds. To obtain more monosaccharides, enzymatic saccharification was carried out with Viscozyme L for 48 h. After pretreatment, 34 g/l of monosaccharides were obtained. and were selected as optimal co-fermentation yeasts to convert all of the monosaccharides in the hydrolysate to ethanol. Co-fermentation was carried out with various inoculum ratios of and . The maximum ethanol concentration of 16.0 g/l was produced using and in a 3:1 inoculum ratio, with an ethanol yield of 0.47 in 72 h. Ethanol fermentation using yeast co-culture may offer an efficient disposal method for waste seaweed while enhancing the utilization of monosaccharides and production of ethanol.