Production of bioethanol from waste money bills - A new cellulosic material for biofuels

Waste money bills that are no longer legal tender are non-recyclable and are usually destroyed. In this study, we used this cellulose-rich material for bioethanol fermentation for the first time. Glucose production was enhanced by using diluted H2SO4 during pretreatment. Different incubation periods were tested for saccharification and subsequent bioethanol fermentation. The highest yield of glucose (41.90 mg/ml) was shown to increase with 27.20% and 25.90% respectively by increasing the reaction period by 30 min and by increasing the acid concentration by 0.5%. Bioethanol production was enhanced by adding 0.4 mM benzoic acid under anoxic condition. In accordance with three different conditions, the highest amount of bioethanol (22.01 mg/ml) was obtained and bioethanol fermentation was increased by 59.38%, 110.02% and 64.13% respectively with 30 min of reaction periods, 0.5% of acid concentrations and under anoxic condition with benzoic acid. This procedure for the production of bioethanol from a waste material would reduce waste money bill management costs and make a profit from ethanol. (C) 2012 The Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.