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Biorefinery of sugarcane for value-added chemicals production

Apilak Salakkam*, Ayyapruk Moungprayoon, Tanyaporn Siriwong,
Chularat Haokok, Siriporn Lunprom

Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Technology, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen, Thailand, 40002
*Corresponding author: apilsa@kku.ac.th
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Abstract

As an attempt to enhance the value of sugarcane, a biorefinery approach was applied
to produce various bio-based products, i.e., poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB), lactic acid (LA),
and xylooligosaccharides (XOs) from sugarcane juice (SJ) and sugarcane bagasse (SB). SJ, which

sp. KKU01
is rich in fermentable sugars, was used as the sole carbon source to grow Paracoccus
for PHB production under fed-batch cultivation. On the other hand, cellulose extracted from

SB was used to produce LA through a simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF)
using Lactiplantibacillus plantarum TSKKU P-8, while xylan-rich hemicellulose was used as a

feedstock for XOs production. Fed-batch cultivation of Paracoccus sp. KKU01 gave a final PHB
concentration of 32.1 g/L, with a yield of 0.13 g-PHB/g-sugar. LA fermentation gave 57.8 g-LA/L,

with a yield of 0.64 g-LA/g-sugar, while enzymatic hydrolysis of xylan-rich hemicellulose gave
10.9 g-XOs/L, with a yield of 0.29 g-XOs/g-substrate. Based on a mass balance, this process
could produce around 17 kg of PHB, 89 kg of LA, and 10 kg of XOs from a ton of sugarcane.

Overall, this research reveals the feasibility to develop a biorefinery process for sugarcane.
However, further process optimization is required for practical implementation.

Keywords: sugarcane, biorefinery, bioplastic, prebiotic, bioeconomy