Authors: Rashmi Kataria, Rohit Ruhal, Ramesh Babu, Sanjoy Ghosh

Publication Date: 08/15/2013

Journal: Chemical engineering journal

Volume: 230

Pages: 36-47

Publisher: Elsevier

Economical production of biofuel is prerequisite to depletion of fossil fuel. In recent years, biomass of numerous food crops was used as a feedstock for bioethanol production. Unfortunately, due to limited availability as well as confliction with food, these sources may hold back for continuous production of bioethanol. Therefore, in the present study a waste land crop “Kans grass” was utilized as feedstock for microbial production of bio-ethanol. The Kans grass biomass obtained after NaOH pretreatment at optimum conditions (in term of lignin removal) was subjected to enzymatic saccharification by using crude enzyme (obtained from Trichoderma reesei) to total reducing sugars (TRSs), which was further fermented for bioethanol production using yeast strains. Different time (30, 60, 90 and 120 min), concentrations of NaOH (0.5%, 1%, 1.5% and 2%) as well as temperatures (100, 110 and 120 °C) were used for …