Production And Comparative Analysis Of Bioethanol From Selected Agricultural Wastes: Corn Cobs, Groundnut Shells And Rice Straws
Achadu M. Abah
Dept. of Chemical Engineering, University of Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria.
Okwudiri V.C
Dept. of Chemical Engineering, University of Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria.
Keywords: Lignocellulosic biomass, pretreatment, gelatinization, acid hydrolysis, fermentation, distillation, percentage purity
Abstract
This article involved the production and comparative analysis of bioethanol from agricultural wastes: corn cobs, groundnut shells and rice straws. These materials amongst others are some of the biomasses that can be used for the production of renewable fuel. The aim of this study is to produce bioethanol using corn cob, groundnut shell and rice straw and to compare the yields and purity against each other and other parameters against those of conventional ethanol. 200g of each sample was subjected to pretreatment, gelatinization, acid hydrolysis, fermentation and finally distillation for the production of ethanol. Fermentation was carried out for seven days for all samples. Distillation process was carried out four times to obtain high percentage purity of ethanol. After the last distillation, the result shows that ethanol from corn cob had the highest percentage purity of ethanol, which gave 96%, compared to rice straw and groundnut shell which gave 74% and 94% respectively. The finding indicates that corn cob gives the highest concentration of ethanol after four distillation steps compared to groundnut shell and rice straw in the same initial mass of sample (biomass).