Tuesday, April 20, 2010
8-70

Pretreatment of energy sugarcane for bioethanol production

Ramaraj Boopathy and Sara Shields. Biological Sciences, Nicholls State University, Hwy 1, Thibodaux, LA 70310

The release of three sugarcane varieties, L 79-1002, HoCP 91-552, and Ho 00-961, to be used as bio-energy crops is a promising feedstock alternative for bio-ethanol production. As sugarcane is an important industry in Louisiana, these energy cane varieties have great potential to sustain a competitive sugarcane industry. Development of optimal pre-treatment techniques and fermentative organisms is essential to determine the most efficient energy cane for bio-ethanol production. Energy cane varieties L 79-1002, HoCP 91-552, and Ho 00-961 and commercial sugarcane variety 540 were subjected to alkaline pre-treatment with 1, 2, and 5% hydrogen peroxide solutions each with a pH of 8, 11.5, and 13. The most efficient pre-treatment concentration was found to be 1% hydrogen peroxide at pH 13. The pretreated biomass was subjected to fermentation with two strains of yeast, namely, Saccharomyces cerevisiae 918 and Saccharomyces cerevisiae 765 strains and three different bacteria including E. coli, Zymomonas mobilis, and Klebsiella oxytoca and the results indicated that there was no statistical difference in ethanol yield among these organisms under the experimental conditions used in this study.