Bioethanol production from date palm fruit waste fermentation using solar energy

Abstract

Every year, more than 236,807 tons, equivalent to 30% of date-palm fruits produced in Algeria, is lost during picking, storage, and commercialization processes. Gasification of this huge biomass can generate biogas such as bioethanol, biodiesel, gasoline and other useful substances. Bioethanol is becoming the main biofuel produced by chemical synthesis or anaerobic fermentation from biomass and is significant for industrial development, investment, and use. It is eco-friendly, moderately costly and cleaner than other gasses. Actually, due to modern biotechnologies, it is possible to valorise the common date-palm waste (CDPW) by bioconversion and to commercialize them in local and international markets in the form of new products with an acceptable added value such as bioethanol. CDPW is a renewable and sustainable resource of energy that is not greatly used in industries. The date is rich in biodegradable sugars, providing bioethanol after fermentation during 72 h at 30°C in the presence of Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast and the distillation of date's juice obtained. In the first experience, a solar batch fermenter (SBF) of 50L capacity, and a butane gas distiller using a cocotte (cooker) of 30L capacity was designed and constructed. The bioconversion systems led to the production of 250 mL/kg of ethanol at 90° after distillation of the CDPW juice at 78°. This is in comparison to the theoretical ethanol directly produced from sugar by chemical synthesis process. The 33% efficiency that was obtained appeared satisfactory and it encouraged the great scaling development of bioethanol based on CDPW biomass and other raw materials abundant in Algeria Sahara.

Efficient utilization of date palm waste for the bioethanol production through Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain

“…The yield of alcohol from spoilage date fruits fermentation medium was greater as compared to synthetic medium containing the same sugar concentration (Abd-Alla & El-Enany, 2012). Our results are also similar to the results of Boulal et al (2016) and Mehani et al (2013) who have reported the fermentation time of sugars from 36 to 72 hr.…”

“…The infrared spectra analysis also identified the vibration signs of biofuel from the waste date palm. The results revealed that wave numbers 2,900 and 3,300 cm −1 link to CH and OH molecule groups, respectively (Boulal et al, 2016;Manzoor et al, 2019Manzoor et al, , 2020Mehani et al, 2013).…”

“…There is a need for transforming the wastes of date palm into useful products for economic yield (Kumar et al, 2019). Boulal et al (2016) used the date palm waste (DPW) to produce ethanol by using solar energy. The results revealed the production of ethanol (250 ml/kg) from DPW at 90°C.…”

“…Governments also actively endorsed the commercialization, development, and identification of new technologies that were the substitutes of biofuels from the last three decades (Boulal et al, 2016).…”

Generation of bioethanol from common date by-products, Teggaza and Lebghel in Southern Algeria

“…The concentration of the ethanol in the alcohol produced (Figure 8) is performed using liquid chromatography (Benziouches, 2011). After distillation of the date juice, a significant specific production of the bioethanol reached 180, and 200.5 mL/kg of dates at 90°C was obtained, representing bioconversion efficiencies of 23.57 and 26.2% for both variety of dates (T & L) respectively (Ahmed et al, 2016). Finally, the vibration sign of the biofuel produced ( Figure 9) is identified using Infra-Red Spectra.…”