Bioethanol production from the fermentation process using vegetable wastes as feedstock materials to produce ethanol-gasoline blends as improved fuel

Abstract

The present work is to investigate the potential bioethanol production from local vegetable wastes as a possible feedstock via the fermentation process. The waste materials were subjected to a pretreatment process before the fermentation process. Conversion of biomass was performed using cost-effective dry yeast such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae for 5 to 7 days. This research aims to determine bioethanol percentage from vegetable wastes. Besides, the fermented solutions were evaluated and analyzed using variations parameters including sugar content, pH value, and yield during yeast fermentation at 32°C for the production of alcohol. It was noted that the sugar content of the feedstocks used was reduced during the fermentation process, whereas the pH values decreased slightly. The decaying vegetables, including beetroot, carrot, and potatoes, recorded a maximum percentage bioethanol yield of 7%, 5%, and 4.3% respectively. Our work exhibits a promising approach for bioethanol production on a large scale from inexpensive organic wastes and yeast. Furthermore, the bioethanol obtained was blended with pure gasoline to produce ethanol-gasoline blended fuel in various proportions of 0%, 3%, 5%, 7%, 9%, 11%, 13%, and 15%. The resulting alternative fuel characteristics were assessed experimentally using (ASTM) standard methods. The bioethanol-gasoline blend properties including Reid vapor pressure (RVP), density, and Research Octane Number (RON) were measured according to ASTM standard methods. Single-cylinder of spark ignition engine was used to study the impact of ethanol/gasoline blends on engine performance. Overall, the results showed that the RON of gasoline was enhanced remarkably with the increase in ethanol ratio.