Factors Affecting Bioethanol Production from Lignocellulosic Biomass (Calliandra calothyrsus)

India is in need of renewable fuels for transportation and power generation applications. Bio-ethanol, a second generation fuel is considered as one of the most important promising alternative fuel for both petrol and diesel engine applications. The molasses feedstock is the main source for ethanol production in India, but it is hardly sufficient to meet the current growing demand. Lignocellulosic biomass is an alternative, renewable and sustainable feedstock to meet the demand of ethanol. In the present study, experiments were carried out with the main objective of bio-ethanol production from Calliandra calothyrsus shrub, a potential lignocellulosic raw material for cellulose-to-bioethanol process. In view of this, C. calothyrsus biomass was pretreated with hydrothermal explosion using hot water, a method prior to hydrolysis process to produce fermentable sugars. Based on the experimental results, 2.67 and 1.72 g/L glucose was obtained with H2SO4 and HCl acid hydrolysis respectively for pretreated biomass. Also the present research work involves experimental investigations of bio-ethanol production from C. calothyrsus using batch fermentation. The results revealed that pH 4.5, temperature 30 degrees C and incubation period of 72 h were found to be favorable for producing maximum bioethanol yield. Further, study on hydrolysis was extended using enzyme, that resulted in 16.5 and 10.25 g/L glucose with and without pretreatment respectively.