Production of bioethanol as useful biofuel through the bioconversion of water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes).

Arpan Das,Uma Ghosh,Keshab Chandra Mondal,Bikas Ranjan Pati,Tanmay Paul,Priyanka Ghosh

doi:10.1007/s13205-016-0385-y

Arpan Das, Uma Ghosh + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s13205-016-0385-y

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Journal: 3 Biotech	Publication Date: Feb 15, 2016
Citations: 46	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Jadavpur University, Vidyasagar University

Abstract

Water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) represents a promising candidate for fuel ethanol production in tropical countries because of their high availability and high biomass yield. Bioconversion of such biomass to bioethanol could be wisely managed through proper technological approach. In this work, pretreatment of water hyacinth (10 %, w/v) with dilute sulfuric acid (2 %, v/v) at high temperature and pressure was integrated in the simulation and economic assessment of the process for further enzymatic saccharification was studied. The maximum sugar yield (425.6 mg/g) through enzymatic saccharification was greatly influenced by the solid content (5 %), cellulase load (30 FPU), incubation time (24 h), temperature (50 °C), and pH (5.5) of the saccharifying medium. Central composite design optimized an ethanol production of 13.6 mg/ml though a mixed fermentation by Saccharomyces cerevisiae (MTCC 173) and Zymomonas mobilis (MTCC 2428). Thus the experiment imparts an economic value to water hyacinths that are cleared from choking waterways.

Highlights

The combustion of fossil fuels has created a global anxiety for the environment and world economy
Saccharomyces cerevisiae (MTCC 173) and Zymomonas mobilis (MTCC 2428), two distillery strains for ethanol production were purchased from the Microbial Type Culture Collection (MTCC), Chandigarh, India
Lower hemicellulose (19.6 %) and higher residual cellulose (35.4 %) contents indicate that acid treatment had removed most of the hemicellulose and exposed the cellulose for further enzymatic hydrolysis for bioethanol production

Summary

Introduction

The combustion of fossil fuels has created a global anxiety for the environment and world economy. Overuse of fossil fuel is increasing the carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere and significantly contributes to the global warming (Silva et al 2011; Abdel-Fattah and Abdel-Naby 2012). Countries across the world have directed state policies toward the utilization of biomass for meeting their future energy demands to meet carbon dioxide reduction targets as specified in the Kyoto Protocol as well as to decrease dependence on the supply of fossil fuels (Sarkar et al 2012). Agro residues when used for ethanol production may address this problem to an extent, but the operation of large-scale plants for cellulosic ethanol production still have several limitations, including high capital investment, technical knowledge, and the high transportation costs of feedstock Research has focused on using non-edible biomass as raw materials including lignocelluloses, celluloses, and marine algae rather than the first-generation biomass such as starch and sugar biomass (Demirbas 2010; Ganguly et al 2012).

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