Abstract

The quest for green and sustainable sources of energy has led to various studies on the production of biofuels such as bioethanol from different agricultural materials. This study presents a comparative analysis of bioethanol produced from Sweet and Iris potato using simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF). 5.00, 10.00, and 15.00 g each of the Sweet and Irish potato peels were hydrolyzed using dilute acid (5% H2SO4). A dried baker’s yeast strain (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) was subsequently introduced to ferment the substrates for 7 days. The bioethanol yield, average bioethanol yield, density, and proximate composition of the substrates were determined. The yield of bioethanol for Sweet potato peels at 5.00, 10.00, and 15.00 g were 43.50, 64.50 and 82.00 cm3 while for Irish potato peel at 5.00 , 10.00 and 15.00 g were 22.00, 41.50, and 59.00 cm3, respectively. The average bioethanol yield for Sweet potato and Irish potato peels were 63.33 and 40.83%, while the density for Sweet and Irish potato peels were 0.853 and 0.891 g/cm3, respectively. The proximate composition for Sweet potato peel was 5.10±0.01% moisture, 4.00±0.023% ash, 2.99 ± 0.044% lipid, 3.50±0.03% fiber, 7.00±0.05% protein, and 77.41±0.01% carbohydrate while for Irish potato peel were 8.75± 0.63% moisture, 3.55± 0.05% ash, 4.48± 0.03 lipid, 4.50± 0.55% fiber, 4.38± 0.67% protein and 74.34±0.15% carbohydrate. Therefore potato peels can be harness as a potential feedstock for bioethanol production with Sweet potato peel having a higher yield of bioethanol compared to Irish potato due to higher carbohydrate content.