Shahadat Hossain
A group of Jahangirnagar University researchers has claimed success in boosted biofuel production using certain types of yeast and bacteria.
Simultaneous saccharification and fermentation of starch solution obtained from rotten potato, sugarcane, sugar beets, maize, wheat, and molasses in presence of particular microbes at high temperature can enhance biofuel production, said the study.
Recently, a Jahangirnagar Universitybased research team observed that an application of previously screened four fungus microorganisms to starch solution at high temperature leads to a production of significant ethanol—a major ingredient of biofuel.
Saccharification is a process of getting a simpler form of carbohydrate from its complex analogues and fermentation is a metabolic process in which an organism converts a carbohydrate into an alcohol or an acid.
Terming the observed ethanol concentration satisfactory, the research group claimed that this method could be used as a renewable source of biofuel from waste crops and would help to reduce the dependency on mineral sources of fuel.
The study titled, ‘Development of high temperature simultaneous saccharification and fermentation by thermosensitive Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Bacillus amyloliquefaciens’, was published at world famous research journal ‘Nature’ on March 7, 2022.
According to the study, the researchers successfully extracted about 3.86 per cent of ethanol from a 10 per cent solution of starch feedstock following this method,indicating a high yield in biofuel production compared to the usual industrial scale.
The study also noted that the process could be considered as an economical technology in terms of cooling cost, operation cost, contamination risk, and the rate of product formation.
Earlier, the research group isolated microorganisms, namely Saccharomyces cerevisiae, from date palm juice that could produce maximum ethanol from glucose at 25 degree Celsius.
Head of the research group Professor Ali Azam Talukdar—who teaches microbiology at Jahangirnagar University, told New Age that the study would help manage thousands of tonnes of rotten seasonal crops alongside a good source of green energy.
‘We mainly emphasised on reducing production cost and time by the action of microorganisms—which possess high fermentation capacity,’ Professor Ali Azam said.
Article originally published on New Age
