Manufacture Of Bioethanol from Sweet Potato (Ipomea batatas) with Saccharomyces cerevisiae Fermentation Process

Abstract

Bioethanol is ethanol or ethyl alcohol (C2H5OH) or sometimes called grain alcohol. Bioethanol is ethanol made from biomass containing sugar components, starch, or cellulose. Obtained from the fermentation of sugars from carbohydrate sources using the help of microorganisms. Bioethanol is usually used as an ingredient for making liquor, for medical purposes, as a solvent, and that are popular today is the use of bioethanol as an alternative fuel. The use of bioethanol as a fuel mixed with gasoline is called gasohol. Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L.) including families Convolvulaceae as dikotil plants. Is a plant tubers belonging to annual crops (short-lived). The use of sweet potato as raw material for bioethanol because sweet potato is not a staple food crop in Indonesia. Due to the high carbohydrate content, so it can be used as a raw material for making bioethanol. Making bioethanol with the basic ingredients of this sweet potato through a three stage process ie the process of hydrolysis, fermentation and distillation. Hydrolysis process carried out to decompose starch into reducing sugars to be fermented into bioethanol. The process of fermentation convert glucose into ethanol with the aid of bacteria contained in cereviceae Saccharomyces yeast bread. The process of distillation is a purification process to increase the levels of ethanol produced in fermentation processes. The reactor consists of a series of bioethanol fermentation tanks and distillation equipment that includes a series of tanks or tank distilator heating and condenser. For bioethanol the experiment results, it can be concluded that the more the amount of yeast used, the higher levels of alcohol obtained. From the results of experiments on the manufacture of bioethanol from sweet potato with variable addition of yeast 1%, 2%, 3%, 4% and 5% bioethanol obtained with the highest alcohol content of 53% ie at the four variables with the addition of yeast 5%.