Abstract:
Due to the growing concern over the depletion of fossil fuels and the increasing rate of greenhouse gas emissions which will lead to global warming, many researchers are now dedicated to producing alternative biofuels in order to help address the above-mentioned issue. Lignocellulosic agricultural wastes seems the greater potential alternative resource for bioethanol production due to several advantages. But, the key requirement for an economical lignocellulosic bioethanol production is efficient pretreatment, pretreatment includes physical, chemical, biological and thermal methods and their combinations, Removal of hemicellulose and lignin improves cellulose recovery and the substrate porosity for saccharification. In this study, microwave-assisted DES pretreatment was developed for corn cob fractionation. The pretreatment was conducted at different irradiation time (10minute, 20minute, and 30minute), microwave power (300watt, 550watt, 800watt) and DES type (lactic acid/choline chloride, glycerol/choline chloride and ethylene glycol /choline chloride). The results indicated that maximum (85.15%) amount of lignin removal was achieved at 20minute, 800watt with ethylene glycol /choline chloride).on other hand maximum yield of fermentable sugar (37.9mg/ml) was achieved at 20minute, 550watt with ethylene glycol /choline chloride). Fermentation experiments for the production of Bioethanol was performed at different yeast load (5v/v, 10v/v, and 15v/v) fermentation time (24hr, 48hr, and 72hr) and temperature (25oc, 30oc, 35oc). Bioethanol produced from corn cob was characterized to determine its density, specific gravity, PH, FTIR, flash point and visual examination.
Keynote: Corncob, pretreatment, fermentation, microwave, deep eutectic solvents