Vegetos
(An International Journal of Plant Research & Biotechnology)
(eISSN: 2229-4473)
Titanium dioxide (TiO2) and sunlight pretreatment of cassava waste for bioethanol production using Simultaneous Saccharification and Fermentation
*Article not assigned to an issue yet
Research Articles | Published: 22 May, 2026
First Page: 0
Last Page: 0
Views: 2
Keywords: Hydrolysis, Fermentation, Ethanol, Glucose, Cassava pulp and peel
Abstract
Food processing wastes are abundant and cheap sources of biomass feedstock for bioethanol production. A critical stage in bioethanol production from lignocellulosic wastes is the pretreatment process which breaks the compact structure of lignocellulosic biomass, exposing cellulose fiber and starch to enzymatic hydrolysis into fermentable sugar. The aim of this research was to pretreat cassava waste (pulp and peel) with Titanium dioxide for bioethanol production using Simultaneous Saccharification and Fermentation. A 20% cassava pulp or peel was pretreated with 0.5% Titanium dioxide (TiO2) under sunlight for 8 h or with 0.5% Titanium dioxide (TiO2) at 65 °C for 24 h. This was followed by either Simultaneous Saccharification and Fermentation (SSF) or Separate Hydrolysis and Fermentation (SHF). Using the conventional SHF (without TiO2), the maximum values of bioethanol produced from cassava peel and cassava pulp were 2.647% and 3.307% respectively; while 2.827% and 3.596% maximum ethanol values were obtained using the conventional SSF from untreated cassava peel and cassava pulp respectively. When the wastes were mixed with titanium dioxide and incubated at 65 °C for 24 h followed by boiling (TiO265° CB), the maximum ethanol concentration obtained with SSF increased to 4.778%. This compared with the 4.508% obtained by incubating the biomass with TiO2 under sunlight at room temperature (STB), followed by boiling and SSF. The ethanol yield under this condition was 0.2254 g-ethanol/g cassava pulp. Although there was no significant difference between the bioethanol produced using TiO265° CB and STB, both methods led to significant increase(p ≤ 0.05) in bioethanol production from cassava pulp. The present work has demonstrated that pretreatment of cassava waste (pulp and peel) with Titanium dioxide under sunlight or at 65 °C, followed by boiling prior to SSF or SHF has high potential for bioethanol production.
References
Abotbina W, Sapuan SM, Ilyas RA, Sultan MTH, Alkbir MFM, Sulaiman S, Harussani MM, Bayraktar E (2022) Recent developments in cassava (Manihot esculenta) based biocomposites and their potential industrial applications: a comprehensive review. Mater Basel 15(19):6992. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma15196992
Ahmad A, Rahmad NR, Noorjannah L (2022) Effect of acid hydrolysis on bioethanol production from oil palm fruit bunches. Materials Today: Proc 63(1): 276–281
Alam RAC, Faridah DN, Wulandari N, Afandi FA, Jayanegara A, Labatjo R (2023) Dual modification of acid hydrolysis and annealing on resistant starch: systemic review and meta-optimization. Food Res 7(5):10–20
Apiwatanapiwat W, Rugthaworn P, Vaithanomsat P, Thanapase W, Kosugi A, Arai T, Mori Y, Murata Y (2013) Ethanol production at high temperature from cassava pulp by a newly isolated Kluyveromyces marxianus strain, TISTR 5925. AIMS Energy 1:3–16
Archibong EJ, Obika IE, Okafor OI, Okafor UI, Ezewuzie CS, Ezemba CC, Awah NC, Okeke BC, Anaukwu GC, Anakwenze VN (2016) Ethanol production from cassava wastes (Pulp and Peel) using alcohol tolerant yeast isolated from palm wine. Am J Life Sci Researches 4:92–97
Ashitha K, Shiamala L, Jaffar Ali BM (2025) Harnessing sunlight for biomass deconstruction and solar biofuel production. J Environ Chem 33(6):December2025–119455
Barba-Nieto I, Caudillo-Flores U, Fernández-García M, Kubacka A (2020) Sunlight-operated TiO2-based photocatalysts. Molecules 25(17):4008
Behera SS, Saranraj P, Ray RC (2022) Microbial bioethanol fermentation technologies—recent trends and future prospects. Biofuels Biorefining 1:75–108
Carlucci C, Degennaro L, Luis R (2019) Titanium dioxide as a catalyst in biodiesel production. Catalyst 9:75
Castellote M, Bengtsson N (2011) Principles of Titanium dioxide photocatalysis. In: Ohama, Y. and Ven Gemert, D. (eds), Application of Titanium dioxide photocatalysis to construction materials. http//www.springer.com/Doihttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-0071297-3-2
Chen P, Xie F, Zhao L, Qiao Q, Liu X (2017) Effect of acid hydrolysis on the multi- scale structure change of starch with difference amylose content. Food Hydrocolloid 69:359–368
Chen YF, Kaur L, Singh J (2018) Chemical modification of starch. In: Sjoo M, Nilsson L (eds) Starch in food. Elsevier, Amsterdam, Netherland, pp 283–316
Derman E, Abdulla R, Marbawi H, Sabullah MK, Gansau JA, Ravindra P (2022) Simultaneous saccharification and fermentation of empty fruit bunches of palm for bioethanol production using a microbial consortium of S. cerevisiae and T. harzianum. Fermentation 8(7):295
Ezea IB (2023) Technologies and factors affecting bioethanol fermentation and its commercialization. Archives Ecotoxicol 5(1):32–36
Hauwa MM, AbdulRahman B, Dahiru SM (2019) Production of bioethanol from sulfuric acid pretreted rice husk using co-culture of Saccharomyces cerevisae and Aspergillus niger. Sci World J 14(1): 2019
Izmirlioglu G, Demirci A (2017) Simultaneous saccharification and fermentation of ethanol from potato waste by co-cultures of Aspergillus niger and Saccharomyces cerevisiae in biofilm reactors. Fuel 202:260–270
Javed MR, Noman M, Shahid M, Ahmed T, Khurshid M, Rashid MH, Ismail M, Sadaf M, Khan F (2019) Current situation of biofuel production and its enhancement by CRISPR /Cas9-mediated genome engineering of microbial cells. Microbiol Res 219:1–11
Jeong S, Lee J (2016) Optimization of pretreatment condition for ethanol production from oxalic acid pretreated biomass by response surface methodology. Ind Crops Prod 79:1–6
Kaewkrajay C, Dethoup J, Limtong S (2014) Ethanol production from cassava using a newly isolated thermotolerant yeast strain. ScienceAsia. 40(4):268–277
Kooprasertying P, Vanichsriratana W, Sirisansaneeyakul S, Laemsak N, Tareen AK, Ullah Z, Parakulsuksatid P, Sultan IN (2022) Ethanol production through optimized alkaline pretreated Elaeis guineensis frond waste from Krabi Province. Thail Fermentation 8:648. https://doi.org/10.3390/fermentation8110648
Kusmiyati A, Mustofa and Jumarmi (2018) Bioethanol production from banana stem by using simultaneous Saccharification and Fermentation (SSF). In: IOP conference series: materials science and engineering 358:012004. https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899X/358/1/012004
Martins F, Abreu MCC, Diniz PAF, Marques GN, Oliveira MM, Mendonça CS, Figueredo GPF, Cavalcante KSB (2023) Hydrolysis of cassava’s (Manihot esculenta Crantz) waste polysaccharides using the natural zeolite Stilbite-Ca as catalyst. Resour Technol Rep 21:101384. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biteb.2023.101384
Ogbonna JC, Tanaka H (2001) Light requirement and photosynthetic cell cultivation- development of processes for efficient light utilization in photobioreactors. J Appl Phycol 13:395–402
Oyeleke SB, Daudo BEN, Oyewole OA, Okoliegbe IN, Ojebode T (2012) Production of bioethanol from cassava and sweet potato peels. Adv Environ Biology 6:241–245
Paschos T, Xiros C, Christakopoulos P (2015) Simultaneous saccharification and fermentation by co-cultures of Fusarium oxysporum and Saccharomyces cerevisiae enhances ethanol production from liquefied wheat straw at high solid content. Industrial Crops Prod 76:793–802
Rafique M, Hajra S, Irshad M, Usman M, Imran M, Assiri MA, Ashraf WM (2023) Hydrogen production using TiO2- based photocatalytic: a comprehensive review. ACS Omega 8:25640–25648
Soccol CR, Faraco V, Karp S, Vandenberghe LPS, Thomaz-Soccol V, Adenise W, Pandey A (2011) Lignocellulosic bioethanol: current status and future perspectives. Biofuels 2011;101–122
Udeh CI, Ezea IB, Ogbonna JC (2024) Comparative study on ethanol production from sweet potato flour and sugarcane juice using Thermotolerant Kluyveromyces marxianus. Asian J Biotechnol Bioresource Technol 10(1):58–62
Walsh AN, Mazzotta MG, Nelson TF, Reddy CM, Ward CP (2022) Synergy between sunlight, Titanium dioxide and microbes enhances cellulose diacetate degradation in the ocean. Environ Sci Technol 56(19):13810–13819
Yasuda M, Miura A, Yuki R, Nakamura Y, Shiragami T, Ishii Y, Yokoi H (2011) The effect of TiO2-photocatalytic pretreatment on the biological production ofethanol from lignocelluloses. J Photochem Photobiol A 220:195–199
Yue P, Xiang J, Chen J, Li H, Qiu Y, Yu X (2020) High surface area, high catalytic activity Titanium dioxide aerogels prepared by solvothermal crystallization. J Mater Sci Technol 47:223–230
Ndubuisi, I. A., Qin, Q., Liao, G., Wang, B., Moneke, A,. N., Ogbonna, J. C., Jin, C. and Fang, W. (2020). Effects of various inhibitory substances and immobilization on ethanol production efficiency of a thermotolerant Pichia kudriavzevii. Biotechnology for Biofuels. 2020 May 18; 13:91
Ndubuisi, I. A., Nwaeze, J. E., Onoyima, N. J. and Ogbonna, J. C. {2018}. Ethanol production from cassava pulp by a newly isolated thermotolerant Pichia kudriavzevii LC375240. Energy and power Engineering, 10: 457-474
Author Information
Department of Microbiology, University of Nigeria Nsukka, Nsukka, Nigeria