Bioethanol Production from Enzymatic Hydrolyzates of Pretreated Flaxseed Meals by Baker’s Yeast

Abstract The present study investigated the usefulness of flaxseed meals as a novel feedstock for the production of bioethanol. The proximate composition of the flaxseed meal was carried out before the pretreatment of the flaxseed meal. In this study, flaxseed meal was pretreated with dilute acid, alkali, and aqueous for disruption of lignocellulosic compounds. The acid pretreated flaxseed meal was used for enzymatic hydrolysis by different enzymes (cellulase, α-amylase, and cellulase combined with α-amylase) for better release of reducing sugar. The cellulose conversion to reducing sugar was significantly higher for acid pretreated flaxseed meals. After enzymatic hydrolysis with cellulase, cellulose conversions to reducing sugars were found to be significantly higher than those of α-amylase and cellulase combined with α-amylase. The bioethanol production was also investigated. The fermentation process was carried out by using baker’s yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) with the acid pretreated flaxseed meal enzymatic hydrolyzate. Maximum ethanol production (0.11 g/l) was achieved from the fermented medium obtained from the acid pretreated flaxseed meal followed by enzymatic hydrolysis by using cellulase enzyme. The structural analysis of bioethanol was also investigated by FTIR.