Bioethanol production from groundnut shell using microorganisms derived from sugarcane root soil

Bioethanol is a form of renewable energy that can be produced from fuel or energy crops. Ethanol is produced by the fermentation of sugars present in agricultural feed stocks and crop residues. This study investigates the use of agro wastes like groundnut shells for ethanol production. Initially, the groundnut shells were washed, dried and grinded into powder. Then it was subjected to ethanol production using yeast. After 20 days of incubation the ethanol was estimated using potassium dichromate method. The maximum ethanol yield (1.55%) was obtained when 1% yeast was used. To increase the efficiency of ethanol production, the cellulolytic bacteria was isolated from the cow dung dumped soil site. The 10 bacterial isolates were screened for cellulase enzyme production. Among them one bacterium showed maximum decolourization of congored which was subjected for enzyme production in nutrient broth. The organism showed maximum enzyme activity of 558.12 U/ml. The isolated cellulolytic bacteria were identified as Bacillus anthracis using 16s rDNA sequencing. Ethanol production from the groundnut shells was again carried out with various concentration of crude cellulase enzyme isolated from the bacteria. The estimation result showed 3.8% of ethanol as maximum. Then the ethanol was condensed using a rotary evaporator and when again estimated, showed 7.3% of ethanol. Finally, the presence of ethanol was confirmed by iodoform test. Thus, groundnut shells can efficiently be used for the production of ethanol, which can be used as a high potential fuel source for transportation in the future.