Yield of hydrolysis and production of lignocellulosic ethanol from elephant grass biomass

Abstract

Due to search for alternative biomasses, that are easy to access, low cost and high in cellulose concentration, for the production of 2nd generation ethanol - or lignocellulosic - this study was carried out with Pennisetum purpureum, known as elephant grass. The study was conducted to determine the chemical composition of elephant grass forage to evaluate its use in the production of lignocellulosic ethanol. The elephant grass stems were reaped in the experimental area of Feira Agrotecnologica de Palmas (AGROTINS) on august 2015. The results have shown that the elephant grass presented approximately 60% cellulose, demonstrating the potential use of this biomass to obtain reducing sugars. The biomass underwent chemical pretreatment before the enzymatic hydrolysis step using commercial cellulase enzyme Cellic CTEC2. After hydrolysis, gave a 54% yield of reducing sugars, which has shown a yield of 53,9% in the hydrolysis. In addition, the yield for ethanol production was 87,8%. Due to this, it is possible to assure that the elephant grass biomass has a great potential as cellulose source, therefore it can be used as an alternative that is cheap and huge in availability to the production of lignocellulosic ethanol.