Production of Bioethanol from Dragon Fruit Wastes by Using Aspergillus niger and Saccharomycetes cerevisae

Abstract

East Kalimantan are able to produce dragon fruit throughout year, while, East Java are only in raining season. This fruit will be produced abundantly when the peak season comes and often becomes waste. To reduce this cellulosic waste from traditional market, we attempt to convert the dragon fruit waste become bioethanol. In this study, the ability of cocultures (A. niger and S. cerevisiae) and mono-culture (only S. cerevisiae) to produce bioethanol was evaluated. The red dragon fruit waste was treated with simultaneously saccharification and fermentation by using Aspergillus niger and Saccharomyces cerevisiae showed the highest concentration of alcohol was 48.0% after 3 weeks incubation. Subsequently, the use only S. cerevisiae to produce bioethanol was found to be able to produce 64.5% alcohol concentration after 2 weeks incubation. The highest concentration of alcohol was showed when the concentration of S. cerevisiae was 0.67%. These observations confirm that mono-culture has higher alcohol concentration compared to cocultures treatment.