Development of Technology for Production of Second Generation Biofuel Ethanol from Bagasse

Abstract

Bagasse is abundantly available agricultural crop waste obtained from renewable source, so it was used as raw material for ethanol production. Acid and heat pretreatment in combination with biological saccharificarion was evaluated for conversion of bagasse cellulose and hemicelluloses to fermentable sugars. Maximum yield of monomeric sugars (13.98 w/v) was achieved when acidic pretreatment in combination with heat was subsequently followed by enzymatic saccharificarion. The maximum ethanol production from S. cerevisae cells (1.6 × 10 $^9$ ) entrapped in sodium alginate beads of diameter 2.0-2.5 mm 14.0 g/L was achieved with ethanol productivity of 10 g L $^{-1}$ h $^{-1}$ and sugar utilization of 85% at dilution rate of 0.25 h $^{-1}$ by feeding 60 g/L glucose concentration in packed bed reactor at temperature 25°C and pH 5.5. This system for ethanol production was operationally stable for 136 h (cycle of 68 h).