Abstract
Author(s): Mrunalini Appe *, Ramya Margam and Sridevi Boddireddy
Biofuels , the fuels that are derived from living matter, usually plants, have emerged as a highly promising source of alternative energy, and have drawn global Research and Development for their production using biomass which is defined as the organic matter used for producing fuel such as lignocelluloses wastes, municipal solid wastes, flowers, weeds etc . A traditional method of bioethanol production mainly requires fruits, sugarcane, honey etc. all which are major food products. There is an increased interest in finding an alternative, cheaper biomass for production of bioethanol. Nectar is a sugar-rich liquid produced by flowers. Flowers of Ixora coccinea (the West Indian jasmine) and Quisqualis indica (Rangoon creeper) contain fermentable sugars. Fermentation of these two fresh flowers with two different strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae was carried out by submerged fermentation method. Estimation of reducing sugar was done by DNS and glucose by GOD-POD method. The initial reducing sugar content of Ixora coccinea was 1350µg/ml and was decreased after the fermentation to 740µg/ml. Whereas in the flower sample of Quisqualis indica, the initial sugar content was 1900µg/ml and was decreased to 570µg/ml and the glucose concentration was estimated to be 620µg/ml in ixora coccinea and 340µg/ml in quisqualis indica by GOD-POD method. The bioethanol estimation was done by dichromate method and the bioethanol yield was found to be 1.34gm% in Quisqualis indica and 1.46gm% in Ixora coccinea.