Thermo-Acid pretreatment of starch based kitchen waste for ethanol production

Abstract

Recently, research on the alcoholic fermentation of kitchen waste has been accelerating for both ecological and economical reasons, primarily for ethanol use as renewable biofuel. Present work deals with the fermentative production of ethanol from different starch based kitchen waste. Kitchen waste from local students restaurant was separated by basic component as: peas, green beans, beans, rice, potato, wheat bread and corn. Thermo-acidic pretreatment of these raw materials was conducted by the addition of HCl up to pH of 1, and by autoclaving at 120 oC for 30 min. From the experimental result, maximum ethanol yield was obtained from wheat bread (0.11 g/g). The highest ethanol yield per starch of 0.36 g/g, which equals to 64% of the theoretical value, was obtained for peas. From the overall analysis, the examined thermo-acid pretreatment was the most efficient for hydrolysis of wheat bread, while it was least efficient for green beans. In order to enhance the efficiency of conversion of starch from kitchen waste into ethanol, pH lower than 1 is highly recommended. The results demonstrated the potential of different food waste as a promising biomass resource for the production of ethanol.