(603a) Cellulosic Ethanol Production From Ionic Liquid Pretreated Biomass with a Recombinant Yeast Expressing Cellulases

As the primary polysaccharide of plant cell wall, lignocellulose has received considerable attention as a main feedstock for bio-refinery process such as cellulosic ethanol production. The enzymatic hydrolysis of lignocellulose to soluble sugars is considered to be the most important process in the production of environmental friendly bioethanol. However, the spontaneous crystallization of cellulose due to the chemical uniformity of the glucosyl residues and the high degree of hydrogen bonding can result in densely packed micro fibrils that are inaccessible to cellulolytic enzymes. For the efficient utilization of cellulosic materials in biomass, there is a need to enhance the enzymatic saccharification of this biopolymer.

For deconstruction of biomass with low energy, ionic liquids were employed as pre-treatment media, and the effective degradation and assimilation procedures were investigated ¹⁾. Subsequently, we developed a transgenic Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain that was secretary produced cellulase, and examined the ethanol fermentation from ionic liquid pretreated biomass ²⁾. The overall process has been named as ‘Ionic liquid-based Consolidated Bio-Processing (i-CBP)’. In this study, we will be presented the effective cellulosic ethanol fermentation from ionic liquid pre-treated biomass using the transgenic S. cerevisiae producing the optimal ratio of saccharification enzymes.

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