Enhanced Bioethanol Fermentation by Sonication Using Three Yeasts Species and Kariba Weed (Salvinia molesta) as Biomass Collected from Lake Victoria, Uganda

Bioethanol Production from Azolla filiculoides by Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Pichia stipitis, Candida lusitaniae, and Kluyveromyces marxianus

Ethanol was produced by separate hydrolysis and fermentation using Azolla filiculoides as a biomass. Thermal acid hydrolysis and enzymatic saccharification were used as pretreatment methods to produce monosaccharides from Azolla. The optimal content for thermal acid hydrolysis of 14% (w/v) Azolla weed slurry produced 16.7-g/L monosaccharides by using 200 mM H₂SO₄ at 121 °C for 60 min. Enzymatic saccharification using 16 U/mL Viscozyme produced 61.6 g/L monosaccharide at 48 h. Ethanol productions with ethanol yield coefficients from Azolla weed hydrolysate using Kluyveromyces marxianus, Candida lusitaniae Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and Pichia stipitis were 26.8 g/L (Y_EtOH = 0.43), 23.2 g/L (Y_EtOH = 0.37), 18.2 g/L (Y_EtOH = 0.29), and 13.7 g/L (Y_EtOH = 0.22), respectively. Saccharomyces cerevisiae produces the lowest yield as it utilized only glucose. Bioethanol from Azolla weed hydrolysate can be successfully produced by using Kluyveromyces marxianus because it consumed the mixture of glucose and xylose completely within 60 h.