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Orange peel, an abundant byproduct of the citrus processing industry, is converted to a mixture of glucose, galacturonic acid, fructose, arabinose, galactose, and xylose by hydrolysis with mixed pectinase and cellulase enzymes. All these sugars can be fermented to ethanol or ethanol and acetic acid by the recombinant bacterium Escherichia coli KO11. The fermentation efficiency is improved by the addition of yeast extract, tryptone, mixed amino acids, corn steep liquor, or by proteolytic digestion of endogenous proteins. Batch fermentations of supplemented peel hydrolysate containing 111 g/L of initial total sugars produced 35-38 g/L of ethanol in 48-72 h and a 75-85% yield.

We extended our previous investigations of enzymatic hydrolysis of polysaccharides in orange peel by commercial cellulase and pectinase enzymes to higher, more practical concentrations of orange peel solids. High yields of saccharification could be maintained even at substrate concentrations as high as 22-23%, but the rates of solubilization and saccharification decreased 2-3-fold. We also tested the fermentability of these hydrolysates by the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which revealed the presence of inhibitory compounds. These compounds could be removed by the filtration of hydrolyzed peel. Successful fermentations of filtered hydrolysates were achieved after pH adjustment with calcium carbonate.

Furfural, a byproduct formed during the thermal/chemical pretreatment of hemicellulosic biomass, was degraded to methane and carbon dioxide under anaerobic conditions. The consortium of anaerobic microbes responsible for the degradation was enriched using small continuously stirred tank reactor (CSTR) systems with daily batch feeding of biomass pretreatment liquor and continuous addition of furfural. Although the continuous infusion of furfural was initially inhibitory to the anaerobic CSTR system, adaptation of the consortium occurred rapidly with high rates of furfural addition. Addition rates of 7.35 mg furfural/700-mL reactor/d resulted in biogas productions of 375%, of that produced in control CSTR systems, fed the biomass pretreatment liquor only. The anaerobic CSTR system fed high levels of furfural was stable, with a sludge pH of 7.1 and methane gas composition of 69%, compared to the control CSTR, which had a pH of 7.2 and 77% methane. CSTR systems in which furfural was continuously added resulted in 80% of the theoretically expected biogas. Intermediates in the anaerobic biodegradation of furfural were determined by spike additions in serum-bottle assays using the enriched consortium from the CSTR systems. Furfural was converted to several intermediates, including furfuryl alcohol, furoic acid, and acetic acid, before final conversion to methane and carbon dioxide.