Corn stover biorefinery improves bioethanol recovery through integrated processing
In Spain, Bioengineer reports researchers have developed an integrated process that converts corn stover into bioethanol while recovering the fuel directly during fermentation. The system combines hydrothermal pretreatment, enzymatic sugar release and membrane-based pervaporation. At 38°C, simultaneous fermentation and ethanol extraction recovered 98% of the ethanol produced within 15.3 hours, compared with 60% recovery using sequential processing. The integrated approach achieved an overall process yield of 97% and recovered 104 grams of ethanol per kilogram of dry corn stover. The findings suggest that combining fermentation and separation could improve efficiency in lignocellulosic biofuel production.
Category: Research
