Studies on Utilization of Waste Potatoes for Bioethanol Production using co-culture of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Aspergillus awamori

Biotechnology Centre, 1Department of Plant Breeding & Genetics, Jawaharlal Nehru Krishi Vishwa Vidyalaya, Jabalpur (M.P) *Author for correspondence: yogendrasinghbt@gmail.com Abstract Bioethanol production from starchy materials such as potato, sweet potato, corn flour is based on bioconversion of starch into sugar and then ethanol by fermentation process. In this study for bioethanol production main fermentation variables were optimized in solid state fermentation (SSF) and simultaneous Saccharification and fermentation (SiSF) methods using co-culture of Saccharomyces cerevisiae MTCC 170 and Aspergillus awamori MTCC 8840. The results of various experiments revealed that with the SSF technique the highest yield of Bioethanol (6.7%) using co-culture of Saccharomyces cerevisiae MTCC 170 and Aspergillus awamori MTCC 8840 was obtained at incubation temperature of 30°C after 168 hr of incubation period. In case of simultaneous Saccharification and fermentation (SiSF), the results of various experiments revealed that by employing co-culture the highest yield of Bioethanol (5.2%) was obtained at a pH of 6.0 with incubation temperature of 30°C after 168 hr of incubation period. The results of various quality attributes of the bioethanol produced showed that there were no major differences in values of density, viscosity, of the bioethanol produced from both methods of fermentation.