Production of Butanol (C4H9OH) from Barley Straw

Abstract

The energy requirements of the world has accelerated search for new fuels or new sources of fuel. Ethanol or butanol production from lignocellulosic biomass is one example of this. As lignin constrains the access of cellulose or hemicellulose to enzymes for their hydrolysis, it is necessary to remove the lignin. Various pretreatment methods are used before going for the hydrolysis of cellulose present in biomass followed by hydrolysis. In this work, barley straw is chosen as the lignocellulosic biomass and production of butanol has been carried out using steam explosion and acid hydrolysis followed by fermentation. The maximum amount of sugar (37.51 mg/ml of hydrozylate solution) was produced after the hydrolysis by HNO3 with 0.5 mol/ltr concentration. The maximum amount of butanol (3.046mg/ml) was also found by hydrolyzing with 0.5 mol/ltr of HNO3 after the fermentation of hydrozylate