PRODUCTION OF BIOETHANOL FROM RICE AND MILLET HUSKS

Abstract

This study was based on the production of bioethanol as an alternative source of fuel using rice and millet husks. Proximate, elemental and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) were conducted of the biomass. The proximate analysis revealed that millet husk had the highest moisture content of 26.67±0.58% when compared with rice husk 8.17±0.29%. The TGA of rice husk had a high endset temperature of 355.510C and a weight loss of -48.23%, millet husk had low endset temperature of 349.210C and a weight loss of -44.25%. When thirty grams (30g) of the substrates was used, rice husk revealed the highest reducing sugar content of 2.59±1.24mol/dm3 when compared to millet husk that had 1.63±0.68 mol/dm3. Rice husk indicated low yield after 7 days of fermentation period but showed a significantly high yield in the volume of ethanol produced 68.67±17.69g/l and millet husk had a yield of 79.80±0.93g/l. This indicated that both rice and millet husks were potent for bioethanol production with millet husk having the highest yield.