Journal of Fundamentals of Renewable Energy and Applications
Open Access
ISSN: 2090-4541
+44 1300 500008
ISSN: 2090-4541
+44 1300 500008
Knawang Chhunji Sherpa, M M Ghangrekar and Rintu Banerjee
Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India
Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Fundam Renewable Energy Appl
The world�s concern over its energy crisis and reliance on non-renewable fossil fuels has made us focus our attention towards renewable energy sources so as to replace oil usage. Use of first generation biofuels using food crops such as corn and sugarcane has many consequences from increase in food prices to loss in huge amount of water during production of biofuels. Due to these problems, second generation biofuels are most sought that makes use of lignocellulosic biomass due to its abundance, low cost, non-competitiveness with food and diminution in greenhouse gas emissions. Agro and forest residues are potent feedstock for bioethanol since they are generated in large quantity annually. India being the second largest producer of sugarcane (production of 350.02 MT in 2013-14) generates huge amount of sugarcane tops that are rich in carbohydrate content and are usually burnt in the field or used as low quality roughage. One of the major challenges in bioethanol production is the development of an efficient pretreatment method for the removal of recalcitrant lignin in order to unbind the celluloses and hemicelluloses for efficient saccharification follwed by fermentation. In the present study, laccase from Pleurotus djamor and cellulase produced from Trichoderma reesei RUT C30 was used for pretreatment and saccharification respectively. Under optimal conditions, 79.02% delignification and 504 mg of reducing sugar per gram of pretreated substrate was obtained. Simultaneous saccharification and fermentation using Saccharomyces cerevisiae was also conducted which demonstrated significant ethanol production indicating its potential for second generation bioethanol.
Email: knawang@gmail.com