BIOETHANOL PRODUCTION USING TARO ROOTS WASTE (Colocasia esculenta) FROM BOGOR INDONESIA AND ANALYSIS OF CHEMICAL COMPOUNDS

Abstract

Taro roots waste (Colocasia esculenta) was considered a starch material for the preparation of bioethanol. Conversion of starch into ethanol was conducted by enzymatic hydrolysis followed by fermentation. The hydrolysis process uses the catalyst of HCl 15% (1:10) at 100o C for 2.5 hours and fermentation using Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The chemical composition was analyzed by using chromatography gas-mass spectrophotometry (GCMS). The active component of bioethanol was found as ethanol (41.14%) and glycerol (29.08 %). The other chemical compound were 2,3-dimethyloxirane, pentanal, propionic acid, and heptane-2-one. The fermentation using tape yeast resulted in the main component of glycerol (31.39%), cyclobutanol (15.26%), pentane (12.93%), and methyl 2-oxopropanoate (10.50 %). The taro roots waste were the potential to convert biomass into bioethanol, which is one of the environmentally friendly alternative fuels.