PRODUCTION OF BIOETHANOL FROM THE MIXTURE OF TANGERINE AND POTATO PEELS

Abstract

Tangerine peels and potato peels were collected and pretreated, they were then mixed at a tangerine to potato peel ratio of 30:70. Proximate and ultimate analysis were carried out on the peels after pretreatment to check their potential for bioethanol production, the results of the proximate analysis showed that the moisture, crude lipids, ash, protein and carbohydrates content were, 17.90, 8.03, 6.00, 6.12, 61.95 respectively, the carbohydrate content shows the suitability for bioethanol production. The treated peels were then hydrolyzed to extract fermentable sugars, then saccharomyces cerevisiae was used as the fermentation agent to aid the fermentation process to produce bioethanol, the produced bioethanol was then characterized. After 96 hours of fermentation at an average temperature of 34ºC the bioethanol yield was 45.7g/L it was observed that the total number of solids reduced significantly. After characterization, the results showed that the flash, pour and cloud point were 19.8ºC, 4.63ºC, 18.5ºC respectively, the viscosity was 1.05mm²/s and the octane rating was 93.