Impact of varying lignocellulosic sugars on continuous solvent production in an immobilized column reactor

The effect of varying glucose, mannose and xylose concentrations on continuous solvent production at various dilution rates was studied by multiple linear regression (MLR) modeling using an immobilized column reactor. The factors affecting the solvent production were dilution rate and concentrations of glucose and mannose. MLR-models also showed a preference of glucose as well as its inhibitory effect on xylose consumption. The fermentation process was studied at bigger scale with a volume factor of 17 with an added recirculation loop in the system. The up-scaled reactor produced 12.5 g/l of acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) solvents at a dilution rate of 0.23 h(-1), as compared to 13.4 g/l with a smaller column reactor. The xylose utilization was significantly higher in the modified reactor (73%) as compared to the small scale (43%). (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.