Bioethanol from Water Hyacinth by White Rot Fungi in Biodegradation

Abstract

Bioethanol is one of the most potential liquid fuels since the natural resources from fossil fuels become limited. Nowadays renewable energy become as an alternative energy to reduce fossil fuels consumption. Therefore, the study of water hyacinth and water lettuce was chosen as potential source of biofuel due to its abundant and easy to cultivate in nature. The study aims to investigate the potential of floating aquatic macrophytes to provide enough supply for bioethanol production. Study on feasibility of biological pretreatment on water hyacinth and water lettuce using white rot fungi by monitoring lignin and hemicellulose biodegradation. The potential of bioethanol production was determined by sugar consumption rate and percentage of fermentable sugar by Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast. The experiment was fabricated with two tanks contain macrophytes which Eichhornia crassipes and Pistia stratiotes. Weight of both species was recorded for consecutive three days to monitor the optimum growth rate.