Leela WatiMeenakshi2017-06-032017-06-032013http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810014379The use of sugarcane bagasse in bioethanol production provides an alternative opportunity for more sustainable development of renewable resources. Sugarcane bagasse contains 30-40% cellulose, 20-25% hemicellulose and 18-24% lignin. Glucose and xylose sugars can be derived from the cellulose and hemicellulose portion of sugarcane bagasse that can be fermented into ethanol. Ethanol can be produced from sugarcane bagasse using three main steps: pretreatment; hydrolysis and fermentation. Pretreatment must be cost-effective besides improving the formation of sugars by hydrolysis. Alkali (Sodium hydroxide and lime) pretreatment of lignocellulosic materials reduce the crystallinity of cellulose and increase the porosity of the lignocellulosic materials. Pretreated bagasse can be fermented either by separate hydrolysis and fermentation (SHF) or simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF). Simultaneous Saccharification and Fermentation improves reducing sugar availability as sugars released by enzymatic activity are used imultaneously and prevent product inhibition by glucose. Other advantage is production of more ethanol in less time because it reduces one step as hydrolysis and fermentation are carried out only in one reactor. For the present study sugarcane bagasse collected from sugar mill, Meham (Rohtak) was ground to 2.0 mm (coarse) and 0.5 mm (fine) particle size. Sugarcane bagasse had 26.5% cellulose, 20.8% hemicellulose and 18.3% lignin content before treatment. Sugarcane bagasse of three particle sizes (unscreened and screened to 2.0 and 0.5 mm) was pretreated with 1 and 5% NaOH with boiling, autoclaving and microwaving treatments and also pretreated with lime. Maximum 81.42% reduction in lignin content was obtained on treatment of coarsely ground bagasse (2.0 mm particle size) boiled in 5% NaOH for 60 min. Solid recovery after various pretreatments to different particle size sugarcane bagasse varied between 40 to 78% and a maximum of 82.70% cellulose and 45.34% hemicellulose was recovered from coarsely ground bagasse boiled in 5% NaOH for 60 min which was used for fuel ethanol production by simultaneous saccharification and fermentation due to high efficiency of delignification. Among different commercial enzymes studied, palkonol, had highest Exoglucanase (13.53 U/ml), endoglucanase (26.67 U/ml) and xylanase (16.46 U/ml) activity. Enzymatic saccharification of pretreated bagaasse with Palkonol loaded at 2% (v/v) released maximum (45.2 g /100g) total reducing sugars after 2 h reaction at 50°C. Simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) of pretreated sugarcane bagasse (10% w/v) using yeast Candida utilis (1% w/v) with 2% v/v enzyme loading and supplemented with 0.3% urea resulted in production of 2.2% (v/v) ethanol after 72 h fermentation at 35°C. On other hand, separate hydrolysis and fermentation (SHF) of sugarcane bagasse carried out under similar conditions, however resulted in lesser (0.9% v/v) ethanol production. Simultaneous saccharification and fermentation of coarsely and finely ground bagasse resulted in production of similar concentration of ethanol i.e. 2% (v/v) under optimized conditions.enBagasse, Sugarcane, Fermentation, Alcohols, Cellulose, Enzymes, Productivity, Fungi, Sugar, PolysaccharidesThesis