Production of Bioethanol Fuel from Low-Grade-Date Extract

Experiments on production of bioethanol through anaerobic fermentation of sugars extracted from low-quality dates using a wild strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae were conducted at 30 C and 33 C. The effect of the pH during fermentation was insignificant at the operating temperatures.The average ethanol yield for all experiments was greater than 71% of its theoretical value. Experiments in a 1L volume fermentor at 30 C and 120 rpm without controlling the pH during fermentation gave ethanol yields of 91.3%, 68.7% and 54.8 % for the 10, 15 and 20% initial sugar concentrations, respectively. The drop in ethanol yield for 20% sugars could be attributed to probable ethanol inhibition.