Biomass is becoming an increasingly popular source for alternative energy. Cellulosic biomass, an alternative to petroleum, is comprised of a molecule called lignocellulose. Lignocellulose must be broken down into glucose chains for fermentation. This process requires several intermediate steps which are time consuming, costly, and ineffective. This project studied simultaneous saccharification and fermentation, an alternative process to break down lignocellulose whereby all the intermediate processes were conducted simultaneously while undergoing yeast fermentation. Temperature, substrate concentration and pH factors were studied to determine the optimal operating conditions for this process. The optimal conditions were determined to be 35C, 40 g/L of glucose, and a pH of 4.5.

• This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

Creator

• Maurice, Michelle Lynn

Publisher

• Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Identifier

• E-project-042811-054328

Advisor

• DiBiasio, David
• Zhou, H Susan

Year

• 2011

Center

• Shanghai, China Project Center - MQP

Sponsor

• Shanghai Jiao Tong University

Date created

• 2011-04-28

Resource type

• Major Qualifying Project

Major

• Chemical Engineering

Rights statement

• In Copyright

Last modified

• 2020-12-27