Green Ethanol Production From Soybean Lignocellulosic Biomass

Many attempts have been made over the last decade to develop technology for production of ethanol as a liquid fuel from lignocellulosic biomass feedstocks. Interestingly soybean fiber co-product from the oil extraction process has had limited interest.  Soybean fiber recovered from environmentally friendly enzyme-assisted aqueous extraction (EAEP), leading to ~96% oil extraction yield, was investigated as a source of ethanol.  The fiber-rich fraction was obtained using protease (PAEP) or cellulase (CAEP).  The characteristics of the fiber-rich fraction obtained from each process will be compared and its potential as a source of ethanol reported. Comparison of various pre-treatments including soaking in aqueous ammonia and liquid hot water pretreatment will be examined and advantages of each pretreatment addressed.  Our best saccharification yield reached more than 80% and ethanol yield of up to 92% was obtained during simultaneous saccharification/fermentation.  The soybean fiber-rich fraction from these processes can therefore be considered as valuable sources for bioethanol production.