Optimization of Liquid Hot Water Pretreatment and Fermentation for Ethanol Production from Sugarcane Bagasse Using Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Sugarcane bagasse can be considered a potential raw material in terms of quantity and quality for the production of alternative biofuels. In this research, liquid hot water (LHW) was studied as a pretreatment process to enhance the digestibility of pretreated material for further conversion into bioethanol. Different variables (temperature, residual time, and acid concentration) were determined to predict the optimized condition. LHW pretreatment showed an impact on the hemicellulose structure. The optimized condition at 160 °C for 60 min with 0.050 M acid concentration reached the highest glucose yield of 96.86%. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed conspicuous modification of the sugarcane bagasse structure. The effect of LHW pretreatment was also demonstrated by the changes in crystallinity and surface area analysis. FTIR techniques revealed the chemical structure changes of pretreated sugarcane bagasse. The prepared material was further converted into ethanol production with the maximized ethanol concentration of 19.9 g/L.