Journal of Bioremediation & Biodegradation
Open Access

Abstract

An environmentally friendly industrial biorefinery of the lignocelluloses such as corn cob and other cereal straws for production of bioethanol and biomaterials by a combination of hydrothermal pre-treatment and alkali post-treatment will be reported. 30 thousand tonnes of bioethanol, 12 thousand tonnes of oligosaccharides and 10 thousand tonnes of xylitol with a purity of more than 97%, 300 hundred tonnes of arabinose with a purity of more than 98.5%, and 15 thousand tonnes of lignin with a purity of more than 94% have being produced from 200 thousands of corn cob per year at Shandong Longlive Bio- Technology Co., Ltd, China. The recovered lignin, which is a significant source of CO2 emissions if burned, was activated under alkaline conditions and then used to produce lignin-phenol-formaldehyde (LPF) adhesives with a yield of about 100 thousand tonnes per year for partially replacing the expensive phenols (50%) in the commercial production of biocomposite boards for construction. Finally, the cellulose-rich fraction, which has a large surface area and total pore volume, is enzymatically hydrolyzed and then fermented into bioethanol with a high conversion, in which 3 tonnes of the cellulose-rich fraction can produce one ton of bioethanol. These value-added hemicelluloses- and lignin-derived products have greatly improved the economy of both lignocellulose conversion and bioethanol production. Similar biorefinery of 200 thousand tonnes of maize stem and 200 thousand tonnes of sorghum stalk for bioethanol and multi-biomaterials production is under construction in China today.

Biography

E-mail: rcsun3@bjfu.edu.cn