An effective approach to improve ethanol productivity by simultaneous saccharification and fermentation of rice straw

Fuel ethanol was produced using rice straw with the simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) method. The influence of cellulose liquefaction pretreatment and Fe2+ quantity on ethanol productivity was investigated in detail. At the same time, the optimized conditions including fermentation temperature, Fe2+ amount, yeast inoculation quantity, and the inoculated cellulose enzyme dosage in the SSF process were systematically investigated by analyzing fuel ethanol yield. The result indicated that fuel ethanol yield was 0.319 g per gram rice straw by SSF approach when appropriate amount of Fe2+ was added into the reaction system. The optimal technology parameters were: fermenting temperature of 36°C, Fe2+ amount of 4 mg · g−1, inoculating proportion of 20%, cellulose enzyme of 20 IU · g−1, and Pachysolen tannophilu/saecharomyces cerevisiae of 1:2 ratio. The ethanol yield under the best conditions was larger than that of the control group. We hope that this research can facilitate to achieve large-scale comprehensive utilization for rice straw.