Fermentative production of high titer gluconic and xylonic acids from corn stover feedstock by Gluconobacter oxydans and techno-economic analysis

High titer gluconic acid and xylonic acid were simultaneously fermented by Gluconobacter oxydans DSM 2003 using corn stover feedstock after dry dilute sulfuric acid pretreatment, biodetoxification and high solids content hydrolysis. Maximum sodium gluconate and xylonate were produced at the titer of 132.46   g/L and 38.86   g/L with the overall yield of 97.12% from glucose and 90.02% from xylose, respectively. The drawbacks of filamentous fungus Aspergillus niger including weak inhibitor tolerance, large pellet formation and no xylose utilization were solved by using the bacterium strain G. oxydans . The obtained sodium gluconate/xylonate product was highly competitive as cement retarder additive to the commercial product from corn feedstock. The techno-economic analysis (TEA) based on the Aspen Plus modeling was performed and the minimum sodium gluconate/xylonate product selling price (MGSP) was calculated as $0.404/kg. This study provided a practical and economic competitive process of lignocellulose utilization for production of value-added biobased chemicals.