Fermentation of lignocellulosic biomass using ultrasonic pretreatment

Abstract

The potential fermentation of the sugars derived from water hyacinth, sweet sorghum bagasse and amaranth using indirect ultrasonic pretreatment, was investigated. The optimum sugar and ethanol yield for the ultrasonic bath pretreatment with 7% NaOH was found to be 289 g ethanol/kg biomass, 231 g ethanol/kg biomass, 189 g ethanol/kg biomass, for the sweet sorghum bagasse, amaranth and water hyacinth. The high energy input required of 486 kJ/g biomass implies that ethanol production from these feedstock without further optimisation is not economically feasible, but considering the high energy potential of sweet sorghum bagasse (1,127,100 MJ/ha), further optimisation should be considered