Pretreatment of Sorghum Waste to Increase the Yield of Fermentable Sugars Production

In recent years, various biomasses have been used as a supply source for bioethanol production. Unfortunately, due to the limited availability and dependence of our food chain on these products, these resources may be an obstacle to the continued production of bioethanol. Therefore, in the present study, a biomass, called sweet sorghum, was used as a source of fermentable sugars for microbial production of bioethanol. The biomass obtained from sweet sorghum wastes after pretreatment with sodium hydroxide was optimally subjected to enzymatic hydrolysis using cellulase enzyme. Times (1, 3 and 5 h), sodium hydroxide concentrations (1, 3 and 5 wt. %) and temperatures (0, 50 and 100 ° C) were used for the pretreatment study. After analyzing the results of the enzymatic hydrolysis process, a pretreated sample with 5% NaOH, 3h time and 50 ° C produced the highest amount of sugar.

Keywords:

Sweet sorghum , Alkaline pretreatment , Cellulase enzyme , Bioethanol.