Steam Explosion as the Pretreatment Method for Ethanol Production from Orange Peel Waste

Abstract

Citrus fruits world production is estimated to be over 88 million tons per year, and oranges alone account for about 55% of such amount. Orange peel waste (OPW) is the solid residue of membranes, cores, juice sacs, etc which represents over 50% of the processed fruits. Its disposal is of great concern from the environmental point of view. Due to the large availability and composition rich in the present investigation was focused on the production of ethanol from OPW which will be an economic, environmental friendly and efficient approach. Strains of Aspergillus niger and Saccharamyces cerevisiae was used for hydrolysis and fermentation of pretreated orange waste, respectively. Spectrometry scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier transformation infrared (FTIR) were used to characterize the sample. Sugar percentage was found to be 3.64 in pretreated sample after 24 hours, which is responsible for the yield of ethanol (6.17 v/v). The results indicated that orange peel can be used as a good low cost alternative feedstock for ethanol production.

Keywords

• fermentation
• hydrolysis
• orange peel waste
• steam explosion