Characteristics of Acid-hydrolysis and Ethanol Fermentation of Laminaria japonica

In order to study the utilization of brown seaweed Laminaria japonica as an alternative renewable feedstock for bioethanol production, the properties of acid hydrolysis and ethanol fermentation were investigated. The acid hydrolysis enhanced the final yield of fermentable sugars, which led great increase of ethanol productivity. The maximum yield of reducing sugars reached 135 mg/g-dry Laminaria japonica after 1.0N sulfuric acid-hydrolysis at for 6 h. The Saccharomyces cerevisiae (ATCC 24858) could ferment -sugars like glucose, galactose and mannose into ethanol, but not -sugars like arabinose and xylose. Optimal fermentation time varied with sugars; 48 h for glucose, 72 h for galactose, and 96 h for mannose. Nevertheless, the ethanol yield from the hydrolysate reached 242 mg/g-dry Laminaria japonica after fermentation by the S. cerevisiae at for 96 h, which corresponds to approximately 4 times more than the theoretical yield from total reducing sugars in the hydrolysates. It indicates that the non-reducing sugars or oligosaccharides dissolved in the hydrolysate played an important role in producing bioethanol. The ethanol concentration linearly increased from 2.4 to 9.2 g/L, while the ethanol yield per dry weight of biomass decreased from 242 to 185 mg/g, with increasing the ratio of biomass to acid solution from 1 to 5% (w/v). The bioethanol yield estimated was approximately 7,400~9,600 kg/ha/year, and indicated that Laminaria japonica is a promissing feedstock for bioethanol production.