Enzymatic Saccharification and Fermentation Technology for Ethanol Production from Woody Biomass

Fuel ethanol production from biomass is promising technology for alleviation of global warming and reduction of fossil fuel use. In particular, production from non-food resources such as woody biomass is required. However, there are several technological problems such as development of efficient pretreatment technology, reduction of enzyme costs, and inability of conventional yeast to ferment xylose. Our research center has been conducting research to solve these problems and developed our own technology for enhancement of enzyme productivity and development of xylose-fermenting yeast strains. Our technology was effective in bench scale ethanol production experiments from eucalyptus wood using an integrated process from pretreatment to fermentation with high solid saccharification and glucose/xylose co-fermentation using a xylose-fermenting yeast strain. Our results show that ethanol production from woody biomass is feasible.