Production of Bioethanol from Papaya and Pineapple Wastes using Marine Associated Microorganisms

Abstract

In the era of declining fossil fuel resources, the World is in urgent need to look into the possibilities of alternate energies which shall sustain the energy resources. Among the alternative energies, biofuels such as bioethanol, biodiesel and methane are advantageous. In this study, an attempt was made to produce bio-ethanol by marine fungi in fermentation process with the use of fruit wastes (papaya and pine apple) as substrates. A total of 19 marine fungi were isolated from various marine and marine related specimens such as sea surface water, rotten woods found along beaches, marine sediment sample and rhizosphere soil from coastal sand dunes. The isolates were studied for their capability to produce enzymes to help in fermentation processes like pectinase, amylase and cellulase. Amongst these isolates, strain AMETF018 was selected because of its potential in producing pectinase, amylase and cellulase. The fungus was grown in liquid culture and mycelia biomass was immobized with calcium alginate. A total of 12 set of fermentation experiments were carried out by immobilized fungus and commercial baker’s yeast Sacchromyces cerevisiae using papaya and pineapple wastes as substrates for ethanol production. The combination of pineapple fruit waste, immobilized marine fungus AMETF018 and fermentative yeast S. cerevisiae, was found to be the best suited for higher production of ethanol. This study thus concludes that marine fungi in combination with yeast could be a potential source for the effective utilization of fruit wastes as biofuel.