Fermentation of enzymatically saccharified sunflower stalks for ethanol production and its scale up

Pretreated sunflower stalks saccharified with a Trichoderma reesei Rut-C 30 cellulase showed 57.8% saccharification. Enzyme hydrolysate concentrated to 40 g/l reducing sugars was fermented under optimum conditions of fermentation time (24 h), pH (5.0), temperature (30 °C) and inoculum size (3% v/v) and, showed a maximum ethanol yield of 0.444 g/g ethanol. Ethanol production scaled up in a 1 l and a 15 l fermenter under optimum conditions revealed maximum ethanol yields of 0.439 and 0.437 g/g respectively.