Optimisation of alkaline reagent based chemical pre-treatment of Brewers spent grains for bioethanol production

Saccharified BSG was prepared following treatment with the optimised NaOH or alkaline peroxide pre-treatments and the resultant hydrolysates fermented with Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Fermentation performance was superior for the NaOH pre-treated samples relative to alkaline peroxide generated feedstocks with shorter lag phases and faster attenuation rates. Mean ethanol concentrations of ca. 17.3 g/L and 8.4 g/L were achieved for the NaOH and alkaline peroxide fermentations respectively which corresponded to 81% and 43% of theoretical ethanol yields.