Indian scientists achieve breakthrough in low-cost ethanol production

Scientists at the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee (IIT-R) have successfully generated low-cost biofuel using a perennial weed, the Kans grass.

The grass, native to the Indian subcontinent, grows up to three feet in height and, being widely available and perennial, comes at low cost.

"Through our technology, which we have now got patented, bioethanol will be produced as a substitute for petrol. This is a low-cost fuel, in comparison to other varieties of bioethanol now available across the world," Sanjoy Ghosh, inventor of the technology and teacher of biochemical engineering at the IIT-R, told the Times of India newspaper.

Kans grass, known by the scientific name Saccharum spontaneum, was chosen as the feedstock due to its high yields, low cost, ability to grow in marginal lands with almost no water supply, and wide availability throughthe the year.

"Kans is a weed that we have exploited for production of bioethanol through a unique process called fractional hydrolysis. It comes with minimum toxic product generation and maximum sugar recovery," Ghosh said.

"There are various grasses from which bioethanol is being produced. Among the most common is Eastern Gama grass (Trypsacum dactyloides). However, scientists could recover around 37% cellulose and 22.1% hemicellulose from it. From Kans grass, we were able to recover over 43.78% cellulose and 24.22% hemicellulose," he continued.

Superior quality ethanol

For superior quality ethanol, unique fermentation techniques are used.

Generally available technologies give mixed sugars along with toxic compounds in the hydrolysis process, which makes fermentation difficult.

"We were able to recover around 93.4 % of total biomass sugar without much toxic product generation, which is a breakthrough in bioethanol production.

“As raw material [Kans grass] is easily available in our country and recovery of sugar is much higher than other biomass. The cost of biofuel, made on ethanol from our technology, for petrol-fuel-based engines would be remarkably low for users," said Ghosh, who co-authored a research paper on Kans grass in Elsevier's Biochemical Engineering Journal along with Lalit K. Singh and Chandrajit Balomajumder.