Detoxification of corn stover prehydrolyzate by trialkylamine extraction to improve the ethanol production with Pichia stipitis CBS 5776

In order to realize the separated ethanol fermentation of glucose and xylose, prehydrolysis of corn stover with sulfuric acid at moderate temperature was applied, while inhibitors were produced inevitably. A complex extraction was adopted to detoxify the prehydrolyzate before fermentation to ethanol with Pichia stipitis CBS 5776. The best proportion of mixed extractant was 30% trialkylamine-50% n-octanol −20% kerosene. Detoxification results indicated that 73.3% of acetic acid, 45.7% of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural and 100% of furfural could be removed. Compared with the undetoxified prehydrolyzate, the fermentability of the detoxified prehydrolyzate was significantly improved. After 48 h fermentation of the detoxified prehydrolyzate containing 7.80 g/l of glucose and 52.8 g/l of xylose, the sugar utilization ratio was 93.2%; the ethanol concentration reached its peak value of 21.8 g/l, which was corresponding to 82.3% of the theoretical value.