SHIRNALLI, GEETAGAURAV, MANJUNATH S2019-10-182019-10-182004No . of references 112http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810132098Environmental pollution and demand for energy are the major challenges that the world is facing today, this is due to increase in population and the advances in technologies. Therefore, ethanol is being blended with petrol or diesel @ 20% for conserve the natural resource and decrease the pollution. 90 per cent of the ethanol is being currently produced from molasses. However due of its higher cost, it is necessary to search an alternate source that is cost effective. According to the statistical analysis, paddy, wheat and sugarcane are the major crops in India. Hence, the present study was conducted to know the potential of these three crop residues for ethanol production. The crop residues were subjected to microbiological and crude enzyme pretreatment to obtain maximum reducing sugars. Among these pretreatment methods combined inoculation of Phanerochaete chrysosporium and Pleurotus spp in paddy straw (1.27 mg g'1) and bagasse (1.97 mg g"1) and combined inoculation of Trichoderma viride and Phanerochaete chrysosporium (1.47 mg g'1) in wheat straw was found to be effective in releasing the reducing sugar compared to enzymatic pretreatment. Hence, microbiological pretreatment along with respective substrates were subjected for further studies on ethanol production. The substrates were further subjected to fermentation of filtrates and fermentation along with the solid substrates.Among these, filtrate fermentation showed maximum release of ethanol (820.80 mg L"1) and Zymomonas mobilis was efficient in releasing ethanol from all the substrates. Among the substrates, bagasse recorded maximum release of ethanol compared to paddy straw and wheat straw. Thus, it can be concluded that fermentation of microbiologically pretreated filtrate of bagasse using Zymomonas mobilis is the best method for ethanol production.ennullThesis