Alcoholic fermentation of thermochemical and biological hydrolysates derived from Miscanthus biomass by Clostridium acetobutylicum ATCC 824

This laboratory scale study aims to demonstrate the effectiveness of thermochemical and biological saccharification of Miscanthus giganteus (MG) for generation of fermentable saccharides and its subsequent fermentation into solvents i.e. acetone, ethanol and butanol (ABE) using Clostridium acetobutylicum ATCC 824. Saccharide hydrolysates were derived from MG by thermochemical (water, acid and alkali at 130 °C) and biological saccharification (Fibrobacter succinogenes S85) processes and were subjected to batch fermentation for 120 h using C. acetobutylicum ATCC 824. At the end of fermentation of thermochemically-derived hydrolysates, 742 g m−3 of saccharides from water treatment, 9572 g m−3 of saccharides from acid treatment and 4054 g m−3 of saccharides from alkali treatment were fermented and yielded 0.045, 0.0069 and 0.01 g g−1 of total solvents, respectively. Similarly, at the end of fermentation of biological hydrolysate (using F. succinogenes), 2504 g m−3 of saccharides was fermented and yielded 0.091 g g−1 of total solvents. The highest yield of total solvents was achieved by water (thermochemical) and biological saccharification of MG using C. acetobutylicum. Whereas, acid and alkali-treated hydrolysates showed lower yields of solvents presumably due to production of inhibitory compounds during saccharification. Compared to thermochemical saccharification, biological saccharification using F. succinogenes is a promising approach since it yielded the highest amount of solvents whilst being eco-friendly. Our future studies will focus on optimisation of biological saccharification (using F. succinogenes) and sequential co-culture fermentation (using C. acetobutylicum). The development of alternative consolidated bioprocessing approach using biological saccharification will contribute towards making lignocellulosic biofuels a reality.