You have no items in your shopping cart.
ABSTRACT
The rise in world population and industrialization has led to an increase in demand for energy. This study looked at the production of fermentable sugars which can be utilized in production of biofuels and other value added products. This study is aimed at production of fermentable sugars from corn cob. Corncob is a potential feedstock that can be used for fermentable sugar production through dilute sulfuric acid pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis. To recover high amounts of fermentable sugars from corncob, the sulfuric pretreatment conditions were optimized by using response surface methodology with three independent variables—sulfuric acid concentration, temperature, and time. The highest response of total sugars 1.6 g/L was found at 139℃, 13 min, and 2% (w/w) H2SO4. These conditions were used in enzymatic hydrolysis using cellulase enzyme. There was an overall increase in total sugars within 72 hours of hydrolysis, with a 7% increase after 48 hours hydrolysis time .Based on the results obtained from this study, it can be concluded that corncob is a good and sustainable feedstock for production of fermentable sugars.
