doiSerbia

Progress in the production of bioethanol on starch-based feedstocks

Mojović Ljiljana (Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy, Belgrade)
Pejin Dušanka (Faculty of Technology, Novi Sad)
Grujić Olgica (Faculty of Technology, Novi Sad)
Markov Siniša (Faculty of Technology, Novi Sad)
Pejin Jelena (Faculty of Technology, Novi Sad)
Rakin Marica (Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy, Belgrade)
Vukašinović Maja (Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy, Belgrade)
Nikolić Svetlana (Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy, Belgrade)
Savić Dragiša (Faculty of Technology, Leskovac)

Bioethanol produced from renewable biomass, such as sugar, starch, or lignocellulosic materials, is one of the alternative energy resources, which is both renewable and environmentally friendly. Although, the priority in global future ethanol production is put on lignocellulosic processing, which is considered as one of the most promising second-generation biofuel technologies, the utilization of lignocellulosic material for fuel ethanol is still under improvement. Sugar-based (molasses, sugar cane, sugar beet) and starch-based (corn, wheat, triticale, potato, rice, etc.) feedstock are still currently predominant at the industrial level and they are, so far, economically favorable compared to lingocelluloses. Currently, approx. 80 % of total world ethanol production is obtained from the fermentation of simple sugars by yeast. In Serbia, one of the most suitable and available agricultural raw material for the industrial ethanol production are cereals such as corn, wheat and triticale. In addition, surpluses of this feedstock are being produced in our country constantly. In this paper, a brief review of the state of the art in bioethanol production and biomass availability is given, pointing out the progress possibilities on starch-based production. The progress possibilities are discussed in the domain of feedstock choice and pretreatment, optimization of fermentation, process integration and utilization of the process byproducts.

Keywords: bioethanol, starch-based feedstock, fermentation, hydrolysis, pretreatment, byproducts