Technology Development of Bioethanol Production from Woody Biomass

Abstract

Bioethanol produced from biomass is expected to become a sustainable energy source in the future since bioethanol has advantages over fossil fuels. Namely, bioethanol is a natural and renewable form of energy that does not increase atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, because burning biomass releases carbon dioxide that is largely balanced by the carbon dioxide absorbed in its own growth. In Brazil and the United States, bioethanol produced from sugarcane, corn and other crops is already being used as automobile fuel by blending with gasoline. Increase in bioethanol production may, however, leads to increase in food prices due to the competition with food production. For this reason, research on cellulosic bioethanol is being conducted, mainly in Europe and the United States, with the objective of realizing its production.
We report herein our company’s research on development of bioethanol production technology with the combination of a mechanochemical pulping pretreatment technology, a simultaneous saccharification and fermentation technology using own heat tolerant yeast and an enzyme recycling technology, in which woody biomass (e. g., fast-growing trees and forestry residues) is used as a raw material to obviate competition with food production.