Using starchy waste as a promising raw material for bioethanol production with consequence purification using chitosan/sodium alginate polymeric membrane

Abstract

Current study is concerned by using environmental wastes as raw materials for bio-ethanol production. Alpha amylase enzyme has been used to convert the starch molecules of kitchen waste into simple units of glucose which subsequently fermented into bioethanol. The obtained results showed that 40% substrate and 100 µl of α-amylase were the optimum concentration to produce the highest glucose units at 417.9 and 482.5 milligram/deciliter (mg/dl), respectively. The highest bioethanol production of 423.5 mg/dl was obtained after anaerobic fermentation of free yeast cells at 30 o C without shaking. Both of bio-ethanol and 25% ethanol were separated by using amicon cell ultra-filtration system integrated with chitosan or sodium alginate membranes under nitrogen pressure. Each membrane was characterized by Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and Ion Exchange Capacity (IEC); while, the hydrophilicity/hydrophobicity was investigated using contact angle. The whole system succeeded to elevate the ethanol concentration in a range of 47-50%, which could be increased with more polymeric modifications.