Bioethanol production from banana peels
Abstract
Banana peels are lignocellulosic agricultural waste that has the potential to produce bioethanol as a renewable form of energy. This study proved that banana peels can be a source of bioethanol.
The collected banana peels were sundried then oven dried and crushed to powder. The crushed powder was mixed with sulfuric acid and kept in the oven for six hours. The solid residues were filtered from the mixture and washed thoroughly with tap water to neutral pH and dried in the oven. The product was hydrolyzed with concentrated sulfuric acid and a glucose assay performed using benedict’s solution. Yeast was added to the resultant solution and allowed to ferment for three days. The fermented solution was distilled to achieve 50% ethanol.
This percentage was too low to be blended with petrol as the standard requires 90% ethanol for this to be acceptable. (USA Patent No. D5798, 2021)