(285e) Consolidated Bioprocessing (CBP) of AFEX Treated Biomass by Clostridium Phytofermentans

Our previous publications showed that high sugar conversion and high ethanol yield can be achieved by using Ammonia Fiber Expansion (AFEX) pretreatment, commercial enzymes, and Saccharomyces cerevisiae 424A(LNH-ST) in separate hydrolysis and fermentation (SHF) and simultaneous saccharification and co-fermentation (SSCF). Some of the promising finding using those studies include: 1) AFEX pretreatment greatly improves biomass digestibility for commercial enzymes; 2) AFEX treated preservers the nutrients in biomass for yeast fermentation; 3) the inhibition effect of degradation products produced during AFEX is mild for yeast fermentation. When compared to SHF, SSCF, Consolidated Bioprocessing (CBP) which performs enzymes production, enzymatic hydrolysis and fermentation in one bioreactor is strongly believed to be the most economic way to produce biofuel in a biorefinery.

Clostridium phytofermentans (ATCC 700394) is a promising CBP microbe, which can degrade cellulose and hemicellulose at the same time and produce ethanol, acetate, lactate, formate and hydrogen. We will report a detail study on the enzyme secreted by this microbe using proteomic analysis. The CBP performance of C. phytofermentans (ATCC 700394) on various AFEX treated biomass including corn stover, switchgrass, rice straw, cane leaf and bagasse will be discussed.