Harnessing of Sunflower Stalks by Hydrolysis and Fermentation with Hansenula polymorpha to Produce Biofuels

A sequential valorization process of sunflower stalks was carried out using nitric acid (0.1-2 mol dm^-3) as a hydrolytic agent and fermenting the hydrolysate of higher sugar concentration in the presence of the non-conventional yeast <i>Hansenula polymorpha</i>. Values reached for ethanol yield (0.25 g g^-1) and xylitol yield (0.14 g g^-1) were higher than those achieved after pretreatment with other acids in previous studies. The effect of acid treatment with nitric, phosphoric, and sulfuric acids on the separated solid fractions was evaluated to determine its potential use as solid biofuel by FTIR and SEM determinations. A significant loss of lignin and hemicellulose was found in the solid treated with nitric acid, while a higher HHV was obtained when pretreated with phosphoric acid (19.16 MJ kg^-1) and sulfuric acid (19.12 MJ kg^-1). A subsequent enzymatic hydrolysis of acid-pretreated solids showed that the nitric acid pretreatment increased the availability of glucose from the cellulose fraction to a greater extent than the other two acids, by reducing the hemicellulose fraction to 0.7% and the lignin fraction to 2.5%. This study shows that pretreatment of biomass with nitric acid leads to better fermentation results to obtain biofuels such as ethanol, which could be further increased by additional enzymatic hydrolysis, while pretreatment with the other two acids generates better solid fuels.