Abstract
The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of process variables during dilute acid pre-treatment and enzymatic saccharification of sorghum stalk for cellulosic ethanol production. The sorghum stalk was pre-treated at different reaction temperature (160 – 220 ), dilute acid concentration (1 – 3 %v/v), solid/liquid ratio (0.06 – 0.15 g/ml) and time (5 – 15 mins). This was followed by fermentation to production and characterization of ethanol. Optimum conditions for pretreatment were reaction temperature of 210 , acid concentration of 3 % v/v, solid/liquid
ratio of 0.1 g/ml and a reaction time of 10 mins. Maximum percentage reducing sugar at this condition was 14 %. The result of ethanol characterization revealed that the ethanol production meets the ASTM standard. Hence, we conclude and recommend that sorghum stalk is a potential feedstock for the production of bioethanol.