EFFECT OF IRON (III) OXIDE, NICKEL OXIDE NANOPARTICLES AND THEIR BLEND ON THE YIELD AND QUALITY OF BIOETHANOL PRODUCED FROM CO-FERMENTATION OF RICE HUSKS AND BANANA PEELS

-Effect of Iron (iii) Oxide (Fe2O3), Nickel Oxide (NiO) nanoparticles (NPs) and their blends as biocatalysts on the yield and quality of bioethanol produced from co-fermentation of rice husks and banana peelshas been investigated. In this study, rice husks (RH) and banana peels (BP) were collected and prepared for characterization using proximate, ultimate and composition analysis techniques. Prepared samples were pretreated using acid pretreatment before enzymatic hydrolysis, co-fermentation and product analyses. Experiments were performed using the following blending ratios: 100wt.%RH:0wt.%BP, 70wt. %RH: 30wt. %BP, 50wt. %RH: 50wt. %BP, 30wt. %RH: 70wt. %BP and 0wt. %RH: 100wt.%BP. The Fe2O3 NPs, NiO NPs, and their blend (Fe2O3+NiO at 1:1) were added accordingly to sample blends. Untreated feedstocksamples without nanoparticles, butprepared using the same blending ratios, served as the control samples. Results revealed that the sample blend, 30wt. %RH: 70wt. %BP, treated with Fe2O3+NiO produced the highest yield of bioethanol (27.8 g/l). This could be associated with the combined effect of the nanoparticles and probably coupled with the co-fermentation effect of the blends of the two lignocellulosic biomass feedstocks. The least yield of bioethanol (23.2 g/l) was produced from the untreated sample blend, 100wt. %RH: 0wt. %BP, that contains only rice husks. The untreated sample blend, 0wt.%RH:100wt.%BP, containing banana peels alone gave a higher bioethanol yield (25.6 g/l) than sample blend with only rice husks, probably due to higher content of fermentable sugars and lower lignin level in banana peels than in rice husks. Bioethanol yields from feedstock samples treated with Fe2O3, NiO and Fe2O3+NiO NP respectivelywere observed to increase withthe increasing weight percentages of banana peels in the blends.The feedstock samples treated with Fe2O3 NPs gave higher yields of bioethanol than samples treated with NiO NPs alone. This suggested thatFe2O3 NPs is a better catalyst than NiO NPs in this specificreaction, enhancingenzymatic activities that facilitate conversion of sugars into bioethanol.