ABSTRACT
The use of ethanol in fuel
blending has long been in use, and this help in controlling gas emissions but
cannot be compared to bio-ethanol in control of greenhouse gas emissions.
Bio-ethanol is known to adsorb CO2 they emit; it also improves rural
economy. A lot of materials especially starchy crops are used in the production
of bio-ethanol. This research work focuses on the production of bio-ethanol
from molasses; a waste from sugar cane industries. Bio-ethanol is regarded as
one of the most promising fuels from renewable sources. This study also looks
at protecting the environment as the effluent of the bio-ethanol production can
be treated before discharging to the open field. Four steps are involved in its
production; dilution, fermentation, decantation and distillation. The molasses
(700ml) was diluted with 300ml of water, after which yeast was added for
fermentation process. Other reagents were also added to enhance the
fermentation process and production of quality ethanol. The fermented molasses
was distilled and to get bio-ethanol, the residue which is the spent wash was
treated to reduce its contamination level in order not to affect lives when
discharged to the environment. The results from the analysis gave 93.7%
ethanol, 78.42oC boiling point value, 0.8301ml/l density, produced
no offensive odour, completely miscible with water. Statistical analysis of
untreated and treated spent wash reveals that it is statistically significant
with p=0.032. These with other results gotten in this study are within the
Nigerian Industrial Standard (NIS) and therefore have proven that molasses
(waste) is a good substrate for bio-ethanol production which can be used for so
many purposes.
CHAPTER ONE
1.1 INTRODUCTION
Transportation
was one of the greatest challenges for society in the 21 century is to meet the
growing demand of energy, heating and industrial processes, and to provide
material for the industry in a sustainable way. Ethanol production, however,
traces back as far as the days of Noah who was believed to have built himself a
vineyard in which he grew grapes that he fermented into some sort of alcoholic
beverages. Ethanol an important member of a class of organic compounds with
general name ‘Alcohol’. During the early times, ethanol was used as a
constituent of alcoholic beverages. With civilization and advancement in
science and technology, the benefits derived from ethanol have continued to
multiply. These include solvent, germicide, as anti-freeze, fuel and versatile
intermediate for other organic chemicals. For these enormous advantages of
ethanol, researchers have been geared towards the production of ethanol from
various raw materials or feedstock. In addition, the environmental
deterioration resulting from the over-consumption of petroleum derived
products, especially the transportation fuels, is threatening the
sustainability of human society (Bai et
al., 2008).The excessive consumption of fossil fuels particularly in large
urban areas, has resulted in generation of high levels of pollution during the
last few decades. In this scenario, fuel production as one of the renewable
sources for the energy industry and the chemical industry may depend on biomass
as an alternative source in the near future (Oliveria and Hira, 2009). All
petroleum- based fuels can be replaced by renewable biomass fuels such as
bio-ethanol, bio-diesel, bio-hydrogen, etc., derived from sugarcane, corn,
switch grass, algae, etc (Sarkar et al., 2011).
Ethanol
is a volatile, flammable and colorless liquid that has a slight odor. In dilute
aqueous solution it has a burning taste. Ethanol has been made since ancient
times by the fermentation of sugars. All ethanol beverages and more than half
of industrial ethanol is still made by this process. The only difference
between bio-ethanol and synthetic ethanol is that synthetic ethanol come from
fossil raw materials while bio-ethanol comes from contemporary materials but
chemically they are both the same compound and the two is the isotopic composition
of the carbon atoms.
Bio-ethanol
is regarded as one of the most promising fuels from renewable sources. It is
used for medicines, cosmetics and industrial materials, and its production is
increasing every year (Cardona and Sanchez, 2007). With the increasing prices
and global environmental concerns, bio-ethanol production has recently become a
focus of attention (Bai et al., 2008).
Generally,
bio-ethanol feedback can be conveniently classified into three types which are
sugar-based feedback, starchy materials and lignocelluloses biomass (Razmovski,
2012). Sugar-based feedback contains readily available fermentable sugars and
can be an ideal substrate for ethanol production by direct fermentation. Direct
fermentation of sugars has advantages in production costs of ethanol, compared
to process that use starchy materials or lignocelluloses biomass as raw
materials (Razmovski, 2012).
Molasses
is a sweetener that is formed as a byproduct of the sugar-making process. Hence
molasses is a solution of sugar, organic matter and inorganic matter in water.
It is known as the final effluent (final molasses) and byproducts of sugar
manufacture. Black strap molasses are molasses produced from raw sugar
factories from cane or beet. Often, only the term molasses is used for molasses
from a beet factory where as black strap is preferably used for cane molasses.
Refinery (final) molasses (refinery black strap, barrel syrup), is derived
mainly from cane refineries, while (high grade) white sugar is produced from
raw sugar. Molasses contains around 40 percent of sugar content that is
fermented by yeast during the ethanol process (Olbric, 2006).
1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
High
importance of ethanol from other countries for fuel blending, poor waste
conversion of waste to other useful products.
1.3 AIM
To
produce bio-ethanol from sugarcane molasses using yeast (Sacchromyces cerevisiae).
1.4 OBJECTIVES
·
To recycle waste material (molasses)
into bio-ethanol through fermentation process.
·
To treat the waste product of fermentation
(spent wash), making the waste environmentally friendly.
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Item Type: Project Material | Attribute: 47 pages | Chapters: 1-5
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