Potential Utilization of Sugarcane Bagasse as Raw Material for Bioethanol Production

Abstract

Bagasse has the potential to generate alternative energy resources such as bioethanol owing to its lignocellulose structure. This research aims for utilizing bagasse as the raw material for producing bioethanol. The process for producing bioethanol consists of delignification, hydrolysis, fermentation and distillation using biocatalyst namely Fungi Dekkera bruxellensis and yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Delignification was conducted at the substrate variation of 5, 10, 15 grams and 3, 5, 7 days contact time. The hydrolysis process used H2SO4 2% with 30, 45, 60 minutes contact time. Fermentation used concentration ratio for fungi and yeast at 1:1 with 3, 5, 7 days contact time. The distillation process went through the temperature of 78-80°C to obtain ethanol. The gravimetric analysis shows the optimum removal efficiency at 10.90% using 5 gram substrates with 3 days contact time. The hydrolysis process shows the highest glucose concentration at 16.64 g/L for each contact time using 15 gram substrates and H2SO4 2%. The highest amount of ethanol was 3.1% with the ratio of substrates 1:1 and 3 days contact time. This research shows that bagasse can produce bioethanol by the utilization of Fungi Dekkera bruxellensis and yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae.