ENZYMATIC HYDROLYSIS, FERMENTATION AND BIOFUELS PRODUCTION FROM ANANAS COMOSUS CROWN

Problems related to the use of fossil fuels and greenhouse gas emissions have become global concerns. To address this issue, the strategy adopted in the present study was to use Ananas comosus residues as a source of fermentable carbohydrates to produce second generation ethanol and briquettes. The demand for biofuel is addressed in the present study by the integrated processing of several stages of treatment of the lignocellulosic substrate: chemical characterization, pretreatment, enzymatic hydrolysis and fermentation. It was verified under the conditions used that the enzymatic hydrolysis liberated after 72 hours 58.44 and 21.91 g L-1 of glucose and xylose, respectively. Conversion of the sugars in the fermentation step resulted in 18.80 g L-1 ethanol in 24 hours. The briquettes produced from the remaining solid fraction of the enzymatic hydrolysis presented a calorific value of 18.41 kJ kg -1.