Bioethanol production from coffee mucilage

Chiapas is one of the largest coffee-producing states in Mexico. In this industry, there are large quantities of waste, which are toxic and harmful to the environment. During the extraction process of coffee bean the waste generated are: pulp, mucilage and parchment. Recently, investigations have been done to utilize these residues for bioenergy generation. This paper provides an overview of coffee and one of its major industrial wastes. The objective of this research was the production of bioethanol from coffee mucilage at laboratory scale and extract and characterize the substrate used as raw material and establish a fermentation process for the production of bioethanol. Our results show the kinetics of fermentation of coffee mucilage as a substrate to yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The cell density, concentration of ethanol, reducing sugar consumption, physico-chemical variables such as pH and temperature were analyzed. The Fermentation parameters such as growth rate, saturation constant and yields were estimated. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.