ABSTRACT
Corn stover is abundantly available in the Midwest of USA and can be an excellent feedstock for biofuel production because of its lower lignin content compared to woody biomass. The commercial viability of biorefineries based on corn stover has been burdened by the use of expensive enzymes needed to hydrolyze the biomass material after pretreatment [1, 2]. It has been well established that producing higher concentration of sugars is an absolute necessity in an industrial setting as it lowers the heating requirements (lowering operating cost) and increases the volumetric efficiency (lowering capital cost) of the equipment [3]. Therefore, lowering the enzyme input and increasing the dry matter content during enzyme hydrolysis for higher cellulose conversion would be one of the most significant steps towards the direction of bioethanol production cost reduc-
tion and eventually leading to the commercialization of second-generation biorefineries based on the lignocellulosic feedstock.
