Sonication Boost the Total Reducing Sugar (TRS) Extraction from Sugarcane Bagasse After Dilute Acid Hydrolysis

It is necessary to explore the non-conventional as well as renewable energy resources to meet the growing energy demand in developing countries, like India. Sugarcane is the second largest agricultural product, which can provide the ample source of bagasse as a waste-biomass for the extraction of fermentable sugar. Sugarcane bagasse is an abandoned source of total reducing sugar (TRS) for bioethanol production. Hydrolysis of pretreated sugarcane bagasse in dilute sulfuric acid was investigated at different acid concentrations (0.25–0.75% v/v) and ultrasound effect carried out to improve the extent of sugar extraction. The current work observes the effect of sonication on extraction of total reducing sugar (TRS) from bagasse. Effects of various operating variables of sonication, including amplitude (60–100%), cycle (0.6–1.0), treatment time (0–15 min) has been analyzed for each acid concentration. Observation shows that under optimum sonication conditions (80% amplitude, 0.8 cycle and 10 min), around 25% improvement of TRS extraction occurs at 0.5% (v/v) acid concentration. Amount of total reducing sugar extracted from bagasse was measured by standard analytical DNS method. Analysis of variance has been used to explain experimental results obtained after sonication.