ABSTRACT

The disposal of waste paper has become a great challenge for many countries as it constitute an environmental hazard because it is a major solid by-product. Waste paper have a high content of lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose, which makes it suitable as fermentation substrate when hydrolyzed. This work aims at using waste paper for the production of ethanol and biomass using acid hydrolysis treatment and palm wine yeast. The waste papers were cut into small sizes and wet milled to obtain a pulp and hydrolysed by boiling using 2M HCl for one hour until all the cellulose were digested to glucose. The hydrolysate was filtered and neutralized with 0.1% of NaOH and filtered again.  Determination of reducing sugar by Fehling’s reagent confirmed the presence of glucose in the medium. 13° Brix sugar (1.0579 S.G) produced from the hydrolysis was optimized to 27° Brix sugar (1.1159 S.G) with 150g of sugar and fermented to ethanol using yeast from local palm wine by batch fermentation at room temperature. The pH range was between 3.6 -5.8 at temperature of 28°C and 30°C, producing biomass of 0.12-1.89 with an increase in titratable acidity from 0.33-2.80 and fall in the sugar content from 21.23-2.58, after 7 days of fermentation. 92% ethanol was obtained after distillation. Further distillation of the sample could produce a higher percentage of ethanol. The result obtained from the experiment conducted shows that cellulosic materials particularly waste paper represents a significant source for bioethanol production in industrial scale as they are abundantly available and cheap.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Title Page i

Certification ii

Dedication         iii

Acknowledgments iv

Table of contents v

List of tables ix

List of figures                                                                                    x

Abstract xi

CHAPTER ONE

1.1    Introduction 1

1.2  Aims and Objectives 2

CHAPTER TWO

2.0 Literature Review 3

2.1 Waste Paper 3

2.2 Wastepaper Composition 3

2.3 Bioethanol 4

2.3.1 Production of Bioethanol 5

2.3.2 Production Technologies of Ethanol 6  

2.4 Pretreatment 7

2.4.1 Physical Pretreatment 7

2.4.2 Chemical Pretreatment 8

2.5 Hydrolysis 10

2.5.1 Acid Hydrolysis 10

2.5.2 Enzymatic Hydrolysis 11

2.6 Microbial Fermentation 13

2.7 Microorganisms Involved In Ethanol Production 13

2.7 Palm Wine Yeasts 14

2.8 Fermentation Parameters 16    

2.8.1 Effect of Fermentation Time on the biomass and alcohol production 16

2.8.2 Effect of Temperature 16

2.8.3 Effect of pH 17

2.3.4 Sugar Concentration 17

2.9 Alcohol Tolerance 17

2.10 Biomass 18

2.11 Economic Importance of Ethanol Production 19

2.12  Ethanol as Fuel 20

2.13 Benefits of Bioethanol 20

CHAPTER THREE

3.0 Materials and Methods

3.1 Materials 22

3.2 Methods 22

3.2.1 Processing of Wastepaper

3.2.2 Hydrolysis of Wastepaper 22

3.2.3 Determination of Reducing Sugar 23

3.2.4 Determination of Specific Gravity 23

3.2.5 Determination of Titratable Acidity 24

3.2.6 Glucose Optimization 24

3.2.7 Sterilization of Materials and Equipment 25

3.2.8 Media Preparation 25

3.2.9 Yeast Isolation and Fermentation 25

3.2.10 Measurement of Parameters 26

CHAPTER FOUR 

4.0 Results 28

CHAPTER FIVE

Discussion, Conclusion and Recommendation

5.1 Discussion 38

5.2 Conclusion 41

5.3 Recommendation 41

References    42