Development of a combined pretreatment and hydrolysis strategy of rice straw for the production of bioethanol and biopolymer

The present study highlights the development of a combined pretreatment and hydrolysis strategy of rice straw for the production of bioethanol and biopolymer (poly-3-hydroxybutyrate). Maximum reducing sugar yield was 0.374 g/g. The hydrolyzate is devoid of major fermentation inhibitors like furfural and organic acids and can be used for fermentation without any detoxification. Fermentation of the non-detoxified hydrolyzate with Saccharomyces cerevisiae yielded 1.48% of ethanol with a fermentation efficiency of 61.25% and with Comamonas sp. yielded 35.86% of poly-3-hydroxybutyrate without any nutrient supplementation. Characterization of native, control as well as the residue left out after combined pretreatment and hydrolysis of RS by scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction showed difference. Compositional analysis revealed that the residue contains lignin and hemicellulose as the major component indicating that major portion of cellulose were hydrolyzed in this strategy.