ARS | Publication request: Rice Hull As Substrate for Production of Fuel Ethanol

Submitted to: UJNR Food & Agricultural Panel Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings/Symposium
Publication Acceptance Date: November 15, 2004
Publication Date: December 11, 2004
Citation: Saha, B.C., Iten, L.B., Cotta, M.A., Wu, Y. 2004. Rice hull as substrate for production of fuel ethanol. In: Cherry, J.P., Pavlath, A.E., editors. Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Meeting of the United States-Japan Cooperative Program in Natural Resources (UJNR), December 11-18, 2004, Honolulu, Hawaii. p. 181-185.

Technical Abstract: Rice hull, a complex lignocellulosic material with high lignin (16%) and ash (20%) content, contains 38% cellulose and 13% hemicellulose and has the potential to serve as a low cost feedstock for production of fuel ethanol. Dilute H2SO4 pretreatment at varied temperature (120-190 deg C) and enzymatic saccharification (45 deg C, pH 5.0) were evaluated for conversion of rice hull cellulose and hemicellulose to monomeric sugars. The maximum yield of total sugars from rice hull (15%, w/v) by dilute H2SO4 pretreatment (1%, v/v, 1 h) and enzymatic saccharification (96 h) was 56%. The yield of ethanol by recombinant Escherichia coli strain FBR 5 (pH 6.5, 35 deg C) was 19 g/L from rice hull hydrolyzate containing 44 g of fermentable sugars.