Corn stover is a domestic feedstock that has potential to produce significant quantities of fuel ethanol and other bioenergy and biobased products. However, comprehensive yield and carbon mass balance information and validated kinetic models for dilute-sulfuric acid (H2SO4) pretreatment of corn stover have not been available. This has hindered the estimation of process economics and also limite...

BACKGROUND Ultrafine grinding is an environmentally friendly pretreatment that can alter the degree of polymerization, the porosity and the specific surface area of lignocellulosic biomass and can, thus, enhance cellulose hydrolysis. Enzyme adsorption onto the substrate is a prerequisite for the enzymatic hydrolysis process. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the enzyme adsorption proper...

BACKGROUND In the bioconversion of lignocellulosic substrates, the adsorption behavior of cellulase onto lignin has a negative effect on enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose, decreasing glucose production during enzymatic hydrolysis, thus decreasing the yield of fermentation and the production of useful products. Understanding the interaction between lignin and cellulase is necessary to optimize t...

Corn stover has potential as a bioenergy feedstock in North America. We simulated production costs for stover harvest (three-pass and two-pass with baling or chopping, and single-pass with baling or chopping) and on-farm storage (outdoor and indoor bales, outdoor wrapped bales, and chopped stover in bags, bunks, or piles). For threeand two-pass harvest, chopping was 33e45% more expensive than b...

BACKGROUND Pretreatment is essential to realize high product yields from biological conversion of naturally recalcitrant cellulosic biomass, with thermochemical pretreatments often favored for cost and performance. In this study, enzymatic digestion of solids from dilute sulfuric acid (DA), ammonia fiber expansion (AFEX™), and ionic liquid (IL) thermochemical pretreatments of corn stover were f...

A major challenge to economically produce ethanol from lignocellulosic biomass is to achieve industrially relevant ethanol titers (>50 g L) to control operating and capital costs for downstream ethanol operations while maintaining high ethanol yields. However, due to reduced fermentation effectiveness at high biomass solids loadings, excessive amounts of enzymes are typically required to obtain...

Effect of Poultry Litter Biochar on Saccharomyces cerevisiae Growth and Ethanol Production from Steam-exploded Poplar and Corn Stover

a complete diet (total mixed ration) with sorghum stover (40%) as sole roughage source was prepared and offered to animals under two forms: as mash or as expanded-extruded pellets (eep). these two complete diets were compared with a conventional diet (ad libitum chopped sorghum stover fed separately with concentrate mixture to meet 80% of protein requirements). these three diets were randomly a...

Genomewide selection (GWS) is markerassisted selection without identifying markers with signifi cant effects. Our previous work with the intermated B73 × Mo17 maize (Zea mays L.) population revealed signifi cant variation for grain yield and stover-quality traits important for cellulosic ethanol production. Our objectives were to determine (i) if realized gains from selection are larger with GW...