@article{ajmr2017543,
author={{E, Onwuakor Chijioke and Uzunma, Hans-Anukam and J, Uzokwe Munachi},
title={Production of Ethanol and Biomass from Rice Husk Using Cultures of <i>Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus eamarii </i>and <i>Saccharomyces cerevisiae</i>},
journal={American Journal of Microbiological Research},
volume={5},
number={4},
pages={86--90},
year={2017},
url={http://pubs.sciepub.com/ajmr/5/4/3},
issn={2328-4137},
abstract={Microbial degradation/conversion of agricultural/industrial wastes to useful bio-products such as bioethanol has become increasingly a popular alternative to gasoline worldwide and has been proven to be useful in many industrial and pharmaceutical processes. In this work, microbial hydrolysis of rice husk into fermentable sugars using <i>Aspergillus</i> <i>flavus</i> and <i>Aspergillus</i> <i>eamarii</i> and subsequent fermentation of sugars to ethanol was achieved using <i>Saccharomyces</i> <i>cerevisiae</i>. The rice husks were ground to fine powder and microbially hydrolyzed by incubating with <i>Aspergillus</i> <i>flavus</i> and <i>Aspergillus</i> <i>eamarii</i> in peptone water for 7 days. Determination of reducing sugar using Fehlings¡¯ reagents confirmed the presence of fermentable sugar in both media. Approximately 6.89¡ã Brix in <i>Aspergillus</i> <i>flavus</i> medium was optimized to 24.41¡ã Brix while 7.12¡ã Brix in <i>Aspergillus</i> <i>eamarii</i> was optimized to 24.10¡ã Brix by adding 300g of sucrose and then fermented to ethanol using <i>Saccharomyces</i> <i>cerevisiae</i> isolated from palm wine at room temperature. The results showed a reduction in pH (6.5-4.1 and 6.8-4.1), an increase in temperature (28-30¡ãC and 28-30¡ãC), increase in percentage titratable acidity (0.33-2.96% and 0.27-2.90%), significant increase in alcohol content (0.00-14.89% and 2.42-14.47%), increase in biomass (0.00-2.16g/l and 0.00-2.08g/l) and decrease in specific gravity (1.112-1.005 and 1.114-1.007) in  <i>Aspergillus</i> <i>flavus</i> and <i>Aspergillus</i> <i>eamarii</i> media respectively over a period of 7 days of fermentation. <i>Aspergillus</i> <i>flavus</i> and <i>Aspergillus</i> <i>eamarii</i> hydrolysates yielded 14.89% and 14.47% ethanol respectively after distillation. The results of the experiment conducted shows that rice husk and other cellulosic agricultural wastes could be potential substrates which can be exploited by industries for production of bioethanol and other biotechnological products.},
doi={10.12691/ajmr-5-4-3}
publisher={Science and Education Publishing}
}