Injection of air into the headspace improves fermentation of phosphoric acid pretreated sugarcane bagasse by Escherichia coli MM170

► We have studied the effect of microaeration during the fermentation of sugarcane bagasse hydrolysates and unseparated slurries. ► Injecting air into the headspace increased fermentation performance by improving xylose utilization. ► Scale-up to 80 L of the L+SScF process was successful, resulting in ethanol yields of 0.25-0.27 g/g bagasse dry weight for two separate runs.