COMPARISON OF ETHANOL PRODUCTION FROM SUGAR AND STARCH CROPS: SUSTAINABLE BIOETHANOL ENERGY RESOURCES CHALLENGER TO HYDROCARBONS.

Technology and Environment

As a non-oil-producing country, Madagascar is currently confronted with an energy problem that is focused on over-dependence on wood energy and fossil fuels, and low exploitation of other energy sources, despite numerous options and research activities that are either localized or still at the experimental stage. However, the country has natural resources that can be exploited through the various varieties of sugar and starch plants that can be transformed and used as a renewable energy source, notably bioethanol. This is the case for pineapple, a sweet plant, and manioc, a starchy plant, the subjects of this research work. Studies and research carried out in the laboratory of the National Center for Industrial and Technological Research (CNRIT) have helped to optimize the bioethanol production process from these two plants. The results of these studies have provided technical parameters for optimizing bioethanol production, including fermentation time, yeast content, sugar reduction and maximum alcoholic strength after rectification. Apart from yeast content, which was around 5% for both plants, the other parameters studied were dominated by the value obtained by cassava, including fermentation time: 3 days for cassava compared with 5 days for pineapple; sugar attenuation: 62,5% for cassava compared with 60,72% for pineapple. Finally, after rectification, cassava recorded an alcoholic degree of 90°GL, compared with 87°GL for pineapple.

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