CONVERSION OF WASTE PAPER TO ALCOHOL AND BIOMASS USING PALM WINE YEASTS

ABSTRACT

The disposal of waste paper has become a great challenge for many countries as it constitute an environmental hazard because it is a major solid by-product. Waste paper have a high content of lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose, which makes it suitable as fermentation substrate when hydrolyzed. This work aims at using waste paper for the production of ethanol and biomass using acid hydrolysis treatment and palm wine yeast. The waste papers were cut into small sizes and wet milled to obtain a pulp and hydrolysed by boiling using 2M HCl for one hour until all the cellulose were digested to glucose. The hydrolysate was filtered and neutralized with 0.1% of NaOH and filtered again.  Determination of reducing sugar by Fehling’s reagent confirmed the presence of glucose in the medium. 13° Brix sugar (1.0579 S.G) produced from the hydrolysis was optimized to 27° Brix sugar (1.1159 S.G) with 150g of sugar and fermented to ethanol using yeast from local palm wine by batch fermentation at room temperature. The pH range was between 3.6 -5.8 at temperature of 28°C and 30°C, producing biomass of 0.12-1.89 with an increase in titratable acidity from 0.33-2.80 and fall in the sugar content from 21.23-2.58, after 7 days of fermentation. 92% ethanol was obtained after distillation. Further distillation of the sample could produce a higher percentage of ethanol. The result obtained from the experiment conducted shows that cellulosic materials particularly waste paper represents a significant source for bioethanol production in industrial scale as they are abundantly available and cheap.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Title Page ﾿ i

Certification ﾿ ii

Dedication ﾿         ﾿ iii

Acknowledgments ﾿ iv

Table of contents ﾿ ﾿ v

List of tables ﾿ ix

List of figures                                                                                    ﾿ ﾿ x

Abstract ﾿ xi

CHAPTER ONE

1.1    ﾿ Introduction ﾿ 1

1.2  ﾿ Aims and Objectives ﾿ 2

CHAPTER TWO

2.0 ﾿ Literature Review ﾿ 3

2.1 ﾿ Waste Paper ﾿ 3

2.2 ﾿ Wastepaper Composition ﾿ 3

2.3 ﾿ Bioethanol ﾿ 4

2.3.1 ﾿ Production of Bioethanol ﾿ 5

2.3.2 ﾿ Production Technologies of Ethanol ﾿ 6  

2.4 ﾿ Pretreatment ﾿ 7

2.4.1 ﾿ Physical Pretreatment ﾿ 7

2.4.2 ﾿ Chemical Pretreatment ﾿ 8

2.5 ﾿ Hydrolysis ﾿ 10

2.5.1 ﾿ Acid Hydrolysis ﾿ 10

2.5.2 ﾿ Enzymatic Hydrolysis ﾿ 11

2.6 ﾿ Microbial Fermentation ﾿ 13

2.7 ﾿ Microorganisms Involved In Ethanol Production ﾿ 13

2.7 ﾿ Palm Wine Yeasts ﾿ 14

2.8 ﾿ Fermentation Parameters ﾿ 16    

2.8.1 ﾿ Effect of Fermentation Time ﾿ on the biomass and alcohol production ﾿ 16

2.8.2 ﾿ Effect of Temperature ﾿ 16

2.8.3 ﾿ Effect of pH ﾿ 17

2.3.4 ﾿ Sugar Concentration ﾿ 17

2.9 ﾿ Alcohol Tolerance ﾿ 17

2.10 ﾿ Biomass ﾿ 18

2.11 ﾿ Economic Importance of Ethanol Production ﾿ 19

2.12  ﾿ Ethanol as Fuel ﾿ 20

2.13 ﾿ Benefits of Bioethanol ﾿ 20

CHAPTER THREE

3.0 ﾿ Materials and Methods

3.1 ﾿ Materials ﾿ 22

3.2 ﾿ Methods ﾿ 22

3.2.1 ﾿ Processing of Wastepaper ﾿

3.2.2 ﾿ Hydrolysis of Wastepaper ﾿ 22

3.2.3 ﾿ Determination of Reducing Sugar ﾿ 23

3.2.4 ﾿ Determination of Specific Gravity ﾿ 23

3.2.5 ﾿ Determination of Titratable Acidity ﾿ 24

3.2.6 ﾿ Glucose Optimization ﾿ 24 ﾿

3.2.7 ﾿ Sterilization of Materials and Equipment ﾿ 25

3.2.8 ﾿ Media Preparation ﾿ 25

3.2.9 ﾿ Yeast Isolation and Fermentation ﾿ 25

3.2.10 ﾿ Measurement of Parameters ﾿ 26

CHAPTER FOUR 

4.0 ﾿ Results ﾿ 28 ﾿

CHAPTER FIVE

Discussion, Conclusion and Recommendation

5.1 ﾿ Discussion ﾿ 38

5.2 ﾿ Conclusion ﾿ 41

5.3 ﾿ Recommendation ﾿ 41

References    ﾿ 42