Utilization of unripe banana peel waste as feedstock for ethanol production

Abstract

AbstractBanana is second largest produced fruit of total world’s fruits. Cooking banana or plantains processing industry is generating enormous amount of waste in the form of unripe banana peel at one place, thus important to study waste management and utilization. Therefore, unripe banana peel was investigated for ethanol production. This study involved chemical characterization, optimization of acid hydrolysis, selection of yeast strain and optimization of fermentative production of ethanol from dried unripe banana peel powder (DUBPP). Ethanol concentration was determined using gas chromatography flame ionization detector (GC-FID). Characterization of DUBPP revealed notably amount of starch (41% w/w), cellulose (9.3% w/w) and protein (8.4% w/w). 49.2% w/w of reducing sugar was produced by acid hydrolysis of DUBPP at optimized conditions. Three yeast strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae were screened for ethanol conversion efficiency, osmotolerance, ethanol tolerance, thermotolerance, fermentation ability at high temperature and sedimentation rate. Further, fermentation conditions were optimized for maximum ethanol production from acid hydrolysate of DUBPP. At optimized fermentation conditions, 35.5 g/l ethanol was produced using selected strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae NCIM 3095. Hence, unripe banana peel waste can be good feedstock for ethanol production.