Bioethanol Production from Water Hyacinth

Abstract

Enhanced development of bioethanol for its use as a carbon-neutral renewable and clean fuel is ever-increasing as it reduces CO2 emissions and associated climate change; it is used as fuel mix and octane enhancer in gasoline and improves the ambient air quality. In comparison with conventional agricultural biomass, lignocellulose biomass is a potential and sustainable substrate for bioethanol production. Lignocellulose biomass commonly comes from terrestrial origins, but aquatic plants and weeds like water hyacinth can also provide adequate biomass for bioethanol production. Aquatic feedstock like water hyacinth has a decentralized availability and thus requires a distributed production strategy for efficient availability. Water hyacinth has been widely exploited for biofuel production with research dedicated to efficient pretreatment, enzymatic hydrolysis and fermentation strategies. Novel processes like CBP can increase the bioethanol conversion yield to about 92% of the theoretical value compared to ~50% by conventional methods along with a reduction in operational costs and inhibitors. Additionally, recent advances in genetically engineering have shown promising results for the generation of fermenting organisms with higher alcohol productivity and tolerance. The current chapter discusses bioethanol production from water hyacinth, various fermentation strategies and their limitations, microbes in fermentation and current advances and commercial status of bioethanol production.