Biohydrogen production from sugarcane bagasse pretreated with combined alkaline and ionic liquid [DMIM] DMP

Biohydrogen attracts many attentions since it has many advantages as source of energy. Biohydrogen from sugarcane bagasse offers many advantages from economic and environmental point of view. This work aimed to study the production of hydrogen from sugarcane bagasse through enzymatic hydrolysis and fermentation using Enterobacter aerogenes. Pretreatment with ionic liquid [DMIM]DMP was carried out prior to hydrolysis. It was found that process with ionic liquid was able to shift the cellulose structure from crystalline cellulose to more amorphous cellulose. Alkaline pretreatment followed by ionic liquid conducted for 20 min at 120oC gave the lowest crystallinity index. This condition also gave the highest total recovery of cellulose and hemicellulose, a condition that is very important for enzymatic hydrolysis to produce as much sugar as possible. Pretreatment condition was also found to give significant effect to the yield and type of monosaccharides produced from the hydrolysis process. Optimization of the pretreatment condition of the combined alkaline and ionic liquid [DMIM]DMP pretreatment was found to give significant effect to the ease of lignocellulosic substrate for its conversion to reducing sugar. The yield of hydrogen from the fermentation of the obtained sugar was 0.46 mole H2 per mole of glucose consumed.