Ethanol produced from lignocellulosic biomass is a renewable alternative to diminishing petroleum
based liquid fuels. The release of many new sugarcane varieties by the United States Department of
Agriculture to be used as energy crops is a promising feedstock alternative. Energy cane produces large
amounts of biomass that can be easily transported, and production does not compete with food supply
and prices because energy cane can be grown on marginal land instead of land for food crops. The
purpose of this study was to evaluate energy cane for lignocellulosic ethanol production. Energy cane
variety L 79-1002 was pretreated with weak sulfuric acid to remove lignin. In this study, 1.4 M sulfuric
acid pretreated type II energy cane had a higher ethanol yield after fermentation by Klebsiella oxytoca
without enzymatic saccharification than 0.8 M and 1.6 M sulfuric acid pretreated type II energy cane.
Pretreated biomass was inoculated with K. oxytoca for cellulose fermentation and Pichia stipitis for
hemicellulose fermentation under simultaneous saccahrification and fermentation (SSF) and separate
hydrolysis and fermentation (SHF) conditions. For enzymatic saccharification of cellulose, the cellulase
and b-glucanase cocktail significantly increased ethanol production compared to the ethanol production
of fermented acid pretreated energy cane without enzymatic saccharification. The results revealed that
energy cane variety L 79-1002 produced maximum cellulosic ethanol under SHF (6995 mg/L) and
produced 3624 mg/L ethanol from fermentation of hemicellulosic sugars.