Ethanol production by Escherichia coli from Arundo donax biomass under SSF, SHF or CBP process configurations and in situ production of a multifunctional glucanase and xylanase

Abstract Diluted acid or liquid hot water (LHW) pretreated Arundo donax biomass was converted into ethanol under separated hydrolysis and fermentation (SHF) or simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) using Escherichia coli as the fermentative organism. Up to 0.26 g L −1  h −1 and 25.0 g L −1 of ethanol were obtained with diluted acid pretreated biomass under SSF compared to 0.17 g L −1  h −1 and 24 g L −1 under SHF. LHW pretreated biomass elicited 25% lower yields on average. Saccharification was carried out with Cellic CTec2 cocktail. Alternatively, under a consolidated bioprocess (CBP) where the ethanologenic bacteria was complemented with a novel multifunctional glucanase and xylanase, ethanol concentration was 7.6 g L −1 and 7.2 g L −1 after 96 h for dilute acid or LHW pretreated biomass, respectively, without any prior saccharification step. According to these results, a bacterial fermentative host combined with in situ enzyme expression can improve ethanol production from A. donax biomass.