Isolation of Xylose Fermentation Strains for Ethanol Production and Xylose Fermentation Research

W. Zhang, H. Mou, H. Cui and Y. Zhang

Abstract
Xylose is abundant in lignocellulosic biomass. The fermentation of xylose is still a key problem in cellulose ethanol fermentation. In this research, the xylose fermentation strains were isolated from the soil sample. Strain N6 was chosen for further xylose fermentation experiments. Comparison of its 16S rDNA gene sequence with available sequences in GenBank showed that it was 100 % identical to that of Bacillus cereus strain SWFU2816 (Accession No. JN935015.1). Strain N6, which ferments xylose and hexose to ethanol, can produce fuel ethanol. The ability of strain N6 to transform xylose was better than its ability to transform glucose. As a result, the optimal condition for xylose fermentation was determined. The optimum fermentation conditions at 150 rpm for 48 h in a shake flask were as follows: pH 7.0, reducing sugar 70 g L–1, inoculation amount 5 %, and temperature 38 °C. The xylose to ethanol yield coefficient could reach a maximum of 0.26 g g–1. At the same time, the influence of the acid hydrolysis by-products on the isolated strain was studied. Compared to the commonly used saccharomycetes, the tolerance of strain N6 on furaldehyde had greatly improved, which could help ethanol fermentation from lignocellulose materials.

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Keywords
Xylose fermentation strain, ethanol fermentation, lignocelluloses, acid hydrolysis by-products