Abstracto

Direct Bioconversion of Rice Straw and Bagasse to Ethanol by Fusarium Oxysporum

A. Magesh, B. Preetha, T. Karunanithi and T. Viruthagiri

Effect of substrate size for the direct bioconversion of rice straw and bagasse to ethanol by Fusarium oxysporum was studied in a batch reactor at constant temperature and pH. Maximum ethanol concentration was obtained for 100 mesh size screen in eight days when the substrates were pre-treated with alkali. It was found that the ethanol concentration was higher for bagasse when compared to rice straw. Maximum ethanol concentration was obtained with a substrate concentration of 2% in 100 mesh size scree for bagasse and ricestraw were found to be 10.59 g/L and 8.6 g/L, respectively. The kinetic data were fitted with logistic growth model and Leudeking-piret model and it was found that the former model closely represents the fermentation process whereas Leudeking-piret model represents the fermentation process only at the initial stages.