FEASIBILITY OF ETHANOL PRODUCTION USING THE WHOLE SUGARCANE BIOMASS

Each ton of processed sugarcane generates about 280 kg of residues (bagasse, straw and tops).The full use of sugarcane biomass could greatly improve the ethanol productivity without expanding the cultivated areas.Bagasse has been widely studied for ethanol production unlike other sugarcane parts.Hence, we assessed the use of the whole sugarcane biomass (bagasse, straw and tops) for ethanol production.Biomasses were pretreated with 1.5% (w/v) sulfuric acid at 10% solids and then they were hydrolyzed by commercial enzymes at 30 FPU/g glucan .Hydrolysates were fermented by industrial strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.Tops were the most susceptible to enzymatic degradation reaching glucose levels up to 40 g/L while the highest efficiency of fermentation (up to 74%) was found for straw.Bagasse achieved lower results than the other parts.Thus, the potential application of sugarcane biomass for ethanol production can be clearly improved with the combined use of bagasse, straw and tops.