Optimization of Banana Peels Hydrolysis for the Production of Bioethanol: Response Surface Methodology

Energy consumption has increased steadily over the last four decades as the population has grown and more countries have become industrialized. On the other hand waste disposal has become the major concern of developing cities. Many countries such as Ethiopia have abundant raw materials for biofuels, yet these have not been explored. This study was designed to utilize banana peels for the production of bioethanol using the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The effects of factors in hydrolysis (the effect of hydrolysis parameters) were investigated and the optimum combination factor was carried out with response surface design. The parameters were varied over 3 levels and 17 experimental runs were conducted to produce fermentable sugar. The optimum results were obtained at 1.50 % v/v acid concentration, 91.02 C-0 temperature and 21.66 min retention time. At this optimum condition, fermentation with and without benzyl penicillin was performed to determine its effect on bioethanol.