Kinetic Modeling of Ethanol Batch Fermentation by <i>Escherichia Coli</i> FBWHR Using Hot-Water Sugar Maple Wood Extract Hydrolyzate as Substrate

A recombinant strain of <i>Escherichia coli</i> FBWHR was used for ethanol fermentation from hot-water sugar maple wood extract hydrolyzate in batch experiments. Kinetic studies of cell growth, sugar utilization and ethanol production were investigated at different initial total sugar concentrations of wood extract hydrolyzate. The highest ethanol concentration of 24.05 g/L was obtained using an initial total sugar concentration of 70.30 g/L. Unstructured models were developed to describe cell growth, sugar utilization and ethanol production and validated by comparing the predictions of model and experimental data. The results from this study could be expected to provide insights into the process performance, optimize the process and aid in the design of processes for large-scale production of ethanol fermentation from woody biomass.