Research Projects

Objective: 1. Biomass hydrolysis in the pilot-scale digester (by Lignoil Technologies Pvt. Limited) within a cost of <290$/Tonne. 2. Xylitol fermentation from biomass hydrolysate with a yield of 0.85 g/g. 3. Xylitol recovery from fermentation broth with a degree of purity of 95% for toxicity profiling. 4. Energy and cost analysis of the entire process with life cycle analysis.

Summary: CSIR-IIP has developed a biocatalytic process for xylitol production from biomass feedstock. The biocatalytic process produces xylitol with a yield of 75-77% (of C5 content) and ~92% selectivity and the product recovered has ~95% degree of purity. We have already established xylitol production at lab scale with 3 kg of feed biomass and calculated the energy and cost involved in production (ongoing CSD-mission mode project). In this FTT project, we propose to scale up the process to 500 L (facility available at CSIR-IIP) fermentation scale to conclude the techno-economic feasibility analysis and nutitional studies with toxicity profiling of the product to opt for FSSAI approval.