Bioethanol Production from Citrus Peel Waste in the absence of D-Limonene

Citrus peel wastes were studied for bioethanol production using the H2SO4 pretreatment method and the fermentation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.This study investigates the potential of acidic pre-treatment for 3 h at 100 C to remove D-Limonene.The results obtained from FT-IR analysis confirmed that D-limonene was significantly decreased from 0.21% to below 0.01%.The density of the bio-ethanol produced was found to be 0.85 g/cc.The turbidity analysis results showed that there was no haze or turbidity developed.Further, the citrus peel wastes treated with 10% (v/v) of H2SO4 showed an increase in reducing sugar concentration at 42 hrs.An ethanol concentration of 70.94 % was obtained from citrus peel wastes during fermentation for 24 hrs.The results observed from the density, turbidity, and Benedict's test confirms that a good bioethanol yield was produced by removing D-limonene through the sequential acid hydrolysis and fermentation process.