GREEN CONVERSION OF WASTE FRUIT RINDS IN TO BIOETHANOL

Abstract

Biomass is a major energy source accounting for 10-14% of the world’s energy supply. The fruit rinds are major biomass contains carbohydrates that are the ideal raw material for conversion into bio fuels majorly ethanol. The hydrolysed monosaccharide’s after physical and enzymatic methods were converted to alcohol by the process of fermentation. The bacteria which were used for saccharification were enumerated by physical methods involving the study of morphology, colony characteristics and staining techniques followed by the biological methods such as biochemical analysis and cellulose degrading activity and also molecular methods involving the sequencing of the 16srRNA of the bacteria. The bacteria which were used for saccharification i.e. H1 isolated from horse dung was identified as Bacillus circulans and C3 isolated from cow dung was identified as Bacillus subtilis, the yeast isolated from musk melon (G7) was identified as Saccharomyces cerevisiae by 18s rRNA sequencing, where G1 was the standard culture Cellulomonas fimi. The saccharification process thus aided the fermentation process to occur more efficiently and thus yield more ethanol. Since the amount of utilizable sugars was high in the fruit rinds of Carica papayayielded more amount of ethanol withBacillus subtilis (60±2.04), followed by Psidium guajavawith Bacillus subtilis (53.75±1.02) and then Solanum lycopersicum with Cellulomonas fimi (43.75±1.02). The FTIR analysis of the Carica papayasample saccharified with Bacillus subtilisshowed the most characteristic peak in bio ethanol spectrum is peak one at 3429.49 cm-1 that lies between 3200-3550cm-1 which relates to alcohol (O-H) vibrations.