A biorefinery approach for the production of bioethanol from alkaline-pretreated, enzymatically hydrolyzed Nicotiana tabacum stalks as feedstock for the bio-based industry

In this study, an attempt was made to investigate bioethanol production using low-cost feedstock, namely, tobacco wastes obtained after the leaves harvesting. Tobacco stalks, an abundant biomass source of the leftover agricultural crop field, are a promising feedstock for bioethanol production. Traditional Thai tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.) is known as non-Virginia type tobacco stalks and was used as biomass feedstock for ethanol production by separate hydrolysis and fermentation (SHF) with a computerized fermenter. Tobacco stalks were efficiently hydrolyzed after a mild physical-chemical pretreatment. The economically cheapest alkaline chemical (2% CaO) was used for pretreatment. The robust yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae was utilized, and it is suitable for industrial ethanol production. These data suggest that tobacco stalks are potential candidates for ethanol production from physical alkali-pretreated biomass with enzymatic hydrolysis on the SHF system.