The Enhanced Butanol Production and High-Efficient Product Recovery with Reduced Wastewater Generation

Abstract: Butanol as an important chemical and potential fuel could be produced via ABE fermentation from lignocellulosic biomass. Biobutanol production from Jerusalem artichoke stalk (JAS) was investigated in order to improve cellulose digestibility and efficient biobutanol fermentation. Compared with 9.0 g/L butanol (14.7 g/L ABE) production by 2% NaOH pretreatment of JAS, 11.8 g/L butanol (17.6 g/L ABE) was produced in the best scenario conditions of NaOH-H₂O₂ pretreatment, washing times and citrate buffer strengths etc. Furthermore, more than >64% water in washing pretreated JAS process could be saved, with improving butanol production by >25.0%. To mimic in situ product recovery for ABE fermentation, the vapor stripping–vapor permeation (VSVP) process steadily produced 323.4–348.7 g/L butanol (542.7–594.0 g/L ABE) in condensate, which showed more potentials than pervaporation for butanol recovery. Therefore, the present study demonstrated an effective strategy on efficient biobutanol production with less wastewater generation using lignocellulosic biomass.