Biotechnology

Biography

Biography: Nidhee Chaudhary

Abstract

There is an increasing interest in alternative source of energy due to fast depletion of the world’s energy supply. Bioethanol production through fermentation provides an economical competitive source of energy. Agrowastes like wheat straw and corn stover leave a large amount of residues rich in carbohydrates and sugar. The present investigation deals with the production and optimization of bioethanol from two agrowastes; wheat straw and corn stover using cellulase enzyme and co-cultures of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Aspergillus niger through simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) process. Pulverized wheat straw and corn stover (ratio 4:6) after steam treatment were used as substrate for bioethanol production. Temperature of 300C, inoculum size of S. cerevisiae and A. niger 6% (v/v), 4% (v/v), agitation for the first 24 h with incubation period of 48 h were found to be the best conditions for bioethanol production. The pretreated biomass after enzymatic saccharification containing reducing sugars (60 gL–1) was fermented under optimized conditions resulting in bioethanol production, yield and fermentation efficiency of 23.64 gL–1, 0.394 gg-1 and 77.25%, respectively. This research work may establish that both wheat straw and corn stover, which have been very little exploited commercially for industrial applications and are poorly disposed off, can be effectively used for bioethanol production. Moreover, due to minimal usage of resources/energy for pretreatment gives an edge to it. The results in this paper are very encouraging and can be utilized for scaling up of the process to a pilot scale or commercial fermenter level, thereby, making the process more cost effective along with contribution in solid waste management, henceforth, in green technology.