Evaluation of hyper thermal acid hydrolysis of Kappaphycus alvarezii for enhanced bioethanol production

Hyper thermal (HT) acid hydrolysis of Kappaphycus alvarezii, a red seaweed, was optimized to 12% (w/v) seaweed slurry content, 180 mM H2SO4 at 140 °C for 5 min. The maximum monosaccharide concentration of 38.3 g/L and 66.7% conversion from total fermentable monosaccharides of 57.6 g/L with 120 g dw/L K. alvarezii slurry were obtained from HT acid hydrolysis and enzymatic saccharification. HT acid hydrolysis at a severity factor of 0.78 efficiently converted the carbohydrates of seaweed to monosaccharides and produced a low concentration of inhibitory compounds. The levels of ethanol production by separate hydrolysis and fermentation with non-adapted and adapted Kluyveromyces marxianus to high concentration of galactose were 6.1 g/L with ethanol yield (YEtOH) of 0.19 at 84 h and 16.0 g/L with YEtOH of 0.42 at 72 h, respectively. Development of the HT acid hydrolysis process and adapted yeast could enhance the overall ethanol fermentation yields of K. alvarezii seaweed.