A Study on the Production of Lactic Acid from Rice Straw via Microwave Assisted Alkali Pretreatment and Simultaneous Saccharification and Co-Fermentation

• Main Authors: Wei-Min Chen, 陳偉珉
• Other Authors: Ming-Chung Wang
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/01209878757258119634

碩士 === 明新科技大學 === 化學工程與材料科技系碩士班 === 102 === Lignocellulose is the most abundant biomass, composed of cellulose, hemicelluloses and lignin. Among these three major components, cellulose can be hydrolyzed into glucose and hemicelluloses can be disintegrated to release xylose, arabinose, glucose and galactose. These simple sugars can be utilized in microbial fermentation as carbon source. Therefore, lignocelluose is an important feedstock in developing biomass energy and biorefinery. In this study, rice straw was chosen as the feedstock in lactic acid fermentation. Minced rice straw was subjected to microwave-assisted alkaline pretreatment, followed by simultaneous saccharification and co-fermentation using cellulase as catalyst and Lactobacillus rhamnosus as lactic acid production strain. Experimental parameters including the concentration of sodium hydroxide solution (1 %, 2 %, 3 %), pretreatment temperature (60 °C, 80 °C, 100 °C, 120 °C), pretreatment time (5 min, 10 min, 15 min), and the temperature of simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (43 °C, 46 °C, 49 °C) were investigated to understand their influence to lactic acid production. It was found that among the experimental conditions studied, the amount of lactic acid produced was highest when rice straw was pretreated with 1% NaOH in a 100°C microwave reactor for 10 minutes, followed by saccharification and co-fermentation at 43 °C.