The production of ethanol by fermentation of reducing sugars resulting from hydrolysis of pretreated eichhornia crassipes (water hyacinth)

Abstract

To convert the water hyacinth nature to achieve maximum hydrolysis yield, an experiment was done using sulphuric acid as a catalyst for the pre-treatment process. The enzymatic digestibility of Water Hyacinth (Eichhorniacrassipes) after pre-treatment was determined by measuring the hydrolysis Yield ofthepre-treated material obtained from 24 pre-treatment conditions i.e. Temperatures (108°Cand121°C), sulphuric acid concentrations (0.0,1.0,2.0and3.0%),andresidencetimes(1.0,2.0 And3.0h).When plant material was pre-treated at 121° C for using 3.0% (v/v) sulphuric acid and 1.0h Residence time, highest reducing sugar yield(36.68g/L) from enzymatic hydrolysis was obtained and Enzymatic hydrolysis was 73.4%.The total reducing sugars obtained from pre-treatment and Enzymatic hydrolysis (69.6g/L) were fermented into ethanol using Saccharomycescerevisiae. They Were converted into 18.25g/L ethanol, which is equivalent to 0.4979g ethanol/g of glucose