Automation of process evaluation of saccharification of wheat starch followed by fermentation of glucose to prepare bioethanol using digital image processing

Abstract

During the last few decades, an increase in the pollution rate has been noticed due to extreme consumption of fossil fuels, mainly in big residential areas. All petroleum-based conventional fuels can be substituted by renewable bio-based fuels such as biodiesel, hydrogen, bioethanol. Bioethanol is generally produced from starchy materials (such as corn, wheat, cereals), lignocellulosic biomass and sucrose-containing feedstocks. Saccharification of starch is done using enzymes, followed by a fermentation process using baker’s yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Experiments are carried out to see the day-wise decrease in concentration of glucose and increase in the concentration of ethanol. This may induce manual error as regular monitoring of the process with skilled supervision is required. In this paper, we propose “Auto Monitor” to introduce the digital image processing to automate monitoring of the said chemical process. This automation will help us get timely and accurate monitoring of various parameters like percentage of the chemical formation.