Obtaining Bioethanol through Hydrolytic Treatment of Agro-Industrial Banana Residues

摘要

The banana is a food of great importance and it is consumed in almost the en style="font-family:Verdana;">tire world. However, its harvest generates large quantities of mostly lignocellu style="font-family:Verdana;">losic waste, which can be used for the production of biofuels such as bioethanol. In this work, the potential for bioethanol production from agro-industrial plantain crop residues was evaluated with different operating conditions. A 2 ^{style="font-family:Verdana;">4 style="font-family:Verdana;">?experimental design was used, having as study variables: time of hydrolysis, pH of hydrolysis, concentration time, and fermentation time. The samples used were scraps consisting of a mixture of stems, leaves, and banana peels. The bioethanol obtained was characterized by physicochemical properties such as density, refractive index, and FTIR. As a result, it was obtained that the volume of bioethanol represented higher yields; using NaOH as a hydrolyzing agent, with hydrolysis time of 30 minutes, high fermentation time, and low concentrations. The chemical characterization of banana agro-industrial waste indicated that, the raw material could be considered as a potential source for bioethanol production, since it has a high content of cellulose.}