Making Biofuels Part 1

Lecture Notes

This slide offers another view at the process of converting cellulosic feedstock into ethanol. Starting with cellulosic feedstocks, such as energy crops or corn stover or other plant residue, it requires pretreatment in order to make the cellulose more accessible to enzymatic breakdown or hydrolysis, and solubilize the hemicellulose sugars. In the hydrolysis step, the cellulose is broken down into the component 6-carbon glucose sugars molecules. This is initially done using enzyme preparations, and then microbes, such as yeast, convert the sugar into ethanol.