a b s t r a c t
A high-solid loading of lignocellulosic biomass in hydrolysis and simultaneous saccharification and fermentation
(SSF) processes would make biofuel production more economical. However, several bottlenecks
are determined by biomass characteristics, such as absorptiveness. We investigated the
enzymatic digestibility and fermentability of pretreated Miscanthus as a high-concentration biomass in
an SSF process, using a continuous feeding system and a particular type of impeller. When prehydrolysis
and SSF was performed with a 25% dry solid loading, containing 30 FPU/g cellulose, for 56 h, 63.4 ± 1.0 g/L
ethanol was produced with a standard impeller, while 69.2 ± 1.6 g/L ethanol was produced with an
angled-type of impeller. Ethanol was produced in a short time, and ethanol productivity was enhanced,
by using the continuous feeding system and an impeller angled at 30. These findings contribute to the
development of a continuous-production process for obtaining bioethanol from lignocellulosic biomass.
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