Production of Xylitol and Ethanol from Pretreated Corncob via Dual-phase Fermentation

A team from Tsinghua University in China, led by Ke-Ke Cheng and Jian-An Zhang, are attempting to combine xylitol fermentation, and ethanol production using only a single yeast strain.

The team used a new integrated process of aerobic xylitol production and anaerobic ethanol fermentation using non-detoxified acid pretreated corncob by Candida tropicalis W103. C. tropicalis W103 was able to produce xylitol from xylose under aerobic conditions. The residue from the xylitol production was then used as the substrate for the anaerobic ethanol production. A maximum xylitol yield of 0.32 g xylitol/g xylose was obtained while 25.3 g/L ethanol was produced from the residue.