Camalote Grass ( Paspalum f asciculatum Willd) as a Sustainable Raw Material for the Production of Lignocellulosic Ethanol

Abstract

The current trend of replacing a percentage of gasoline with ethanol has promoted the development of new processes for its production from lignocellulosic biomass. This work reports the production of ethanol from the Camalote grass ( Paspalum fasciculatum Willd). The lignocellulosic biomass was subjected to acid hydrolysis at 125 ° C and 15 psi with H 2 SO 4 concentrations at 5%, 10%, and 20%, obtaining an average of reducing sugars (pentoses and hexoses) from the hydrolyzed juice with 12.3%, 10%, and 17% Brix, respectively. The sugars were fermented using yeast of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae at 30 ° C for 48 hours. Finally, the ethanol was distilled at 78 ° C, and the average yields were obtained through analysis of variance with a 95% confidence level. The values indicate that there is a significant difference (p > 0.05), the Tukey study shows that all the % v/v averages are different from each other. For H 2 SO 4 concentration at 5% (10.33 ± 2), H 2 SO 4 at 10% (9.33 ± 1.8), and H 2 SO 4 at 20% (6.33 ± 2). The acidity analysis for the ethanol obtained from each treatment gave a value of 1.8 mg/L of acetic acid in all cases.