Optimization of Acid Hydrolysis of Elephant Grass for Optimum Fermentable Sugar Yield for Biobutanol Production

Abstract

Biofuels are essential for shifting the economy away from fossil fuels and toward more ecologically friendly methods of energy production. The aim of this study was to optimize the production of fermentable sugar from elephant grass using response surface methodology’s central composite design of experiment. The elephant grass sieved to a size of 1.5micrometre(mm) was pre-treated using sulfuric acid(H₂SO₄) and later subjected to enzymatic hydrolysis using cellulase enzymes. Using response surface method (RSM) the results gotten showed that the optimal yield of sugar was 776.785g/L at temperature of 59.45⁰C and concentration of 7.24 NaOH at a time of 47 minutes.