EUBCE 2024 - Sourav MONDAL - Synergistic Integration of Two-Step Pretreatment, Co-Hydrolysis and Co-Fermentation of Lignocellulosic Agro-Residues for Enhanced Bioethanol Production

Synergistic Integration of Two-Step Pretreatment, Co-Hydrolysis and Co-Fermentation of Lignocellulosic Agro-Residues for Enhanced Bioethanol Production

Short Introductive summary

I am Sourav Mondal, a senior PhD student at the Department of Chemical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur. My PhD work mainly focuses on production of biofuels from lignocellulosic biomass. The present work mainly develops an experimental and theoretical strategy for converting holocellulose present in non-edible agro-residue to 2G bioethanol without separating cellulose and hemicellulose from each other, which will reduce the process time and bioethanol production cost and augment product yields through the synergistic action of chemicals, enzymes and microbes. An experimental framework is employed for optimizing the reactor parameters to amplify synergy in the co-hydrolysis of holocellulose, preceded by a two-step pretreatment process of an agro-residue (Miscanthus giganteus), followed by the co-fermentation of soluble pentose and hexose sugars to bioethanol in a Separate Co-hydrolysis and Co-fermentation (SCHCF) system. These synergistic effects on bioethanol yield could be further amplified by performing the co-hydrolysis and the co-fermentation simultaneously in a single reactor rather than separately and sequentially.

S. Mondal, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur, INDIA
S. Neogi, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur, INDIA
S. Chakraborty, Plaksha University, Mohali, INDIA