AN ENZYMATIC PROCESS OF BIOETHANOL PRODUCTION USING AGRICULTURAL WASTES BY Saccharomyces cerevisiae (MTCC 173) AND Zymomonas mobilis (2427)

ABSTRACT: Ethanol has widespread use as a solvent of substances intended for human contact or consumption, including perfumes, flavours, colourings and medicines. The economics of ethanol production by fermentation is significantly influenced by the cost of raw materials, which accounts for more than half of production cost. In recent years efforts have been directed towards the utilization of cheap renewable agricultural resources such as banana peel, waste paper, sugarcane waste as alternative substrate for ethanol production. In this study, ethanol was produced from agricultural wastes by using two enzymes namely Amylase from Aspergillus niger and Cellulase from Trichoderma viridae to hydrolyse the starch and cellulose present in the raw materials. The hydrolysed and filtered extracts were fermented using Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Zymomonas mobilis. The fermented product was purified by primary distillation process at 80C and the fractions were collected. The presence of ethanol was then determined by Alcoholmeter method. Results indicated that the Zymomonas mobilis organism yielded maximum ethanol where as minimum ethanol yield was recorded with Saccharomyces cerevisiae organism.