Abstract
Gluconic acid (GA) is a non-corrosive acid used in textile, food additives and pharmaceutical skin care products. Many synthetic approaches were proved costly to produce GA in bulk. Potato peel as domestic waste is rich in nutritional value as they could also be used as fertilizer for plantations. However, improper disposable of these waste could lead to serious environmental problems due to insufficient supply of oxygen leading to an anaerobic condition for the unwanted growth of harmful microorganisms. This bacterial pollution might lead to foul smell and contagious air pollution. An attempt was made by using this potato peel waste to produce GA chemically in normal experimental laboratory condition with high yields. In the process, it was also made to estimate the precious silver metal produced. In present study, potato peel was used to convert the starch in peel to GA and metal silver by oxidation using silver ions. Potato peel wastes were hydrolyzed in acidic medium, where the starch and cellulose in peel were converted into glucose. This glucose was converted into GA using ammonical solution of silver nitrate solution. GA was separated using water as a solvent. The yield of GA was quantified by physicochemical and spectrophotometric methods. The GA is quantified by titration and the yield was found as 68 ± 5% and the amount of silver metal powder was obtained 0.3±0.05 % per kilogram of potato peel waste. This process was simple, precise, accurate, environmental friendly, economical and meet the sustained development goals (SDG).
Highlights
Gluconic acid (GA) is a chemically polyhydroxy acid produced from glucose by chemical synthesis from carbohydrate fermentation with bacteria or fungi (Datta and Henry.2006)
Holland Potato peel wastes were used for the synthesis of GA and silver metal powder as a by-product
The FTIR spectroscopy analysis was used to determine the vibrations of functional groups of starch present in the grinded potato peel waste (PPW)
Summary
Gluconic acid (GA) is a chemically polyhydroxy acid produced from glucose by chemical synthesis from carbohydrate fermentation with bacteria or fungi (Datta and Henry.2006). In 2012 in North America, 60% of processed potato production was generated large volume of PPW (NPC, 2012) and it was proved that it is due to peeling and cutting procedures (Liang and McDonald, 2014) These wastes contain large amount of starch, which can be converted into value added products. Glucose and other sugars are mostly utilized as an ideal substrate for GA production, the feed stack represents 30-40% of total operational cost to produce GA These are produced by fermentation, metal catalyst and various synthetic approaches proved them cost rising, operational restrictions, critical fermentation process of natural potato peel. Glucose was further oxidized using silver nitrate to get silver metal powder as a byproduct in simple chemical laboratory reaction This method is feasible, eco-friendly environment, effective waste management and waste utilization to covert it chemically useful compounds like glucose and gluconic acid(GA)
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