The effect of various pretreatments conditions on the distribution of fermentable sugar from dried elephant ear plant. (15th September 2022) - Trejo, Marlen
Graphical abstract: Highlights: Elephant ear plants are an efficient weedy lignocellulosic biomass for bioethanol. Every hour, 0.475 g/L of ethanol was produced, per the production rate. Ethanol yielded 9.351% using a distillation technique with a temperature of 60 °C. The kinetic model shows the potential ethanol production (pm) of 2.367 g/L. The bioethanol was obtained from the second-generation lignocellulosic biomass. Abstract: Worldwide ethanol consumption is steadily expanding due to fast population expansion and industrialization. The synthesis of ethanol from dried elephant ear plants, as weedy lignocellulosic biomass, was investigated in this study. The effects of a combination of steam explosions at various intervals (0, 15, and 30 min) and CaO obtained from fly ash to varying percentages of 0%, 10%, and 20% on the formation of CaO were evaluated. The reducing sugar content increased from 0.907 ± 0.005 g/L in the fresh sample to 2.633 ± 0.039 g/L in the dry sample. This difference is the main factor for the fresh and dry samples' energy value difference, resulting in 4.536 ± 0.031 and 12.825 ± 0.514 kcal/5 g samples, respectively. The most favorable conditions were chosen to proceed with fermentation followed by distillation. After 24 h, the ethanol concentration reached its highest level of 2.631 g/L, indicating a fermentation efficiency of 71.82% and sugar consumption of 59.48%. Ethanol was recovered with a yield of 9.351% using a distillation technique with a heating temperature of 60 °C. According to the maximal bioethanol production rate (rpm), 0.475 g/L of ethanol was produced every hour. Finally, the kinetic model developed for the fermentation accurately describes the process with a confidence level of R 2 > 0.95 and a potential maximum ethanol production (pm ) of 2.367 g/L as the result of the fermentation. The economic survey could prove the effectiveness of ethanol production in future bioenergy sources.