OPTIMIZATION OF ETHANOL PRODUCTION BY RESPONSE SURFACE METHODOLOGY FROM ENZYMATICALLY HYDROLYZED SUGARCANE BAGASSE

Abstract

With industrialization there has been a sharp increase in the energy consumption. Since emergence of bioethanol as a potential fuel, the world scenario shows that large share of research in past thirty years have been focussed on technological know-how development for bioethanol. Sugarcane juice has been used as an alternative fuel in few countries like Brazil and United states since 2006. Sugarcane bagasse has the potential to be the second generation bioethanol. Use of modern computer based technology can increase the yield of ethanol production .This can be done by optimization of various parameters involved during fermentation. The aim of the study was to use sugarcane bagasse for alcohol production. Fuel produced through bagasse is eco- friendly, cheap, easily renewable. The MTCC 178 strain of yeast has been used for fermentation to produce alcohol. For optimizing the production of alcohol from sugarcane bagasse different conditions with respect to temperature, pH and inoculums concentration were used via Response Surface Methodology (RSM). The result obtained shows that the production of alcohol from the sugarcane bagasse can be optimized at pH 6.54, 23o C temperature and at 6% inoculum concentration with 6.27% alcohol production.