Ana Maria Zetty Arenas1, 2, Sindelia Freitas Azzoni2, Rubens Maciel Filho1, 2 and Adriano Pinto Mariano1
Posters-Accepted Abstracts: J Fundam Renewable Energy Appl
Nowadays, the production of fuels and petrochemical compounds from renewable sources, environmentally friendly and
with high yield and productivity is one of the biggest challenges of the biotechnology industry. Among these petrochemical
compounds, n-butanol stands out as an important industrial chemical because of its great potential to be used as an alternative
fuel. It can be produced either from petroleum derivatives, as well as naturally (biobutanol) by anaerobic fermentation using
solventogenic clostridia resulting in a mixture of acetone, butanol and ethanol (known as ABE fermentation). Hence, biobutanol
has a number of significant advantages over existing biofuels. It is considered a highest value biofuel due to its energy content
(29.2 MJ/L) and similarity properties with gasoline, which could require fewer changes in engines. It is worth noting that the
fermentation of toxic lignocellulosic hydrolyzates has become a challenging research topic in recent decades. Bioconversion
of lignocellulose by microbial fermentation is typically preceded by an acidic thermochemical pretreatment step designed to
facilitate hydrolysis of cellulose. Substances formed during the pretreatment of the lignocellulosic feedstock have a serious
inhibitory effect in subsequent fermentation steps. The overall goal of this project is to develop an efficient process to convert
lignocellulosic sugars (from sugarcane bagasse) into n-butanol via the ABE fermentation process. The research will investigate
to which extent the novel extractive fermentation - an advanced fermentation technology with integrated product recovery by
means of vacuum - is more robust against inhibitory compounds formed during biomass pretreatment and the effects of the
choice for the advanced technology on the design process of the pretreatment and conditioning steps.
Ana Maria Zetty Arenas has a BS. in Agroindustrial Engineering from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia-UNAL (2008) in Colombia. She also has MSc. in Chemical
Engineering from the Universidade de São Paulo-USP (2012) in Brazil. Currently, she is a pursuing PhD. in Bioenergy at the Universidade de São Paulo-USP, Universidade
Estadual de Campinas-Unicamp and Universidade Estadual Paulista-Unesp, in Brazil. She is working on the research project entitled “Efficient bioconversion of lignocellulosicderived
sugars from sugarcane bagasse into n-butanol”.
