Evaluation of Bioethanol Production from a Mixed Fruit Waste by Wickerhamomyces sp. UFFS-CE-3.1.2

Abstract

The use of fruit residues from domestic consumption for energy purposes is a perspective of innovation in the search for a more sustainable fuel, due to the low cost of this biomass, combined with its large amounts of generation, which has sugars readily available in its composition and does not require process pretreatment hydrolysis complexes of the material. This work evaluated residues of melon, pineapple, banana, apple, and mango, to compose a mixture of fruit waste (MFW), simulating a household waste for bioethanol production by a non-conventional yeast Wickerhamomyces sp. UFFS-CE-3.1.2. Sugar extraction was optimized by experimental design (MFW: 12% g dry mass v⁻¹; 25 °C; 5 min) and resulted in the liberation of 36.32 ± 0.72 g L⁻¹ fermentable sugar. MFW was used for alcoholic fermentation with and without nitrogen supplementation (urea and yeast extract). The results demonstrated that it is not necessary for the supplementation, making the process more economically viable. The maximum ethanol productivity (2.50±0.06 g L⁻¹ h⁻¹) was achieved in 9 h of the operation. The MFW extracted is an alternative for the bioethanol process as low cost and straightforward, adapted for different fruit residues, and used as a unique or diluent medium in the biorefinery context. Moreover, non-conventional yeast demonstrated the more new one in this study that explores the potential of yeast recently isolated.