Fermentation of Rice Straw by Vermiwash for Bioethanol Production

Rice straw is abundant in the world and the waste management became a global issue. In this paper, vermiwash is used for rice straw hydrolysis and then followed fermentation to produce bioethanol. This study involves the optimization of factors involved in bioethanol production and also microbiological study of the vermiwash. The hydrolysis of rice straw by vermiwash presents the highest reducing sugar yield of 18.70mg mL-1 and highest enzymatic activity of 0.151 IU mL-1. Formation of clear zones indicates presence of cellulolytic microorganism. The highest bioethanol yield obtained was 0.0896mg mL-1. The obtained result from ANOVA indicated that the significant factors were biomass loading and vermiwash ratio with P-value <0.05. In conclusion, it was found that the microbial consortiums in the vermiwashwere able to degrade rice straw and to convert the fermentable sugars to bioethanol.