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. 2021;3(3):347.
doi: 10.1007/s42452-021-04369-y. Epub 2021 Feb 18.

The potential of sweet potato biorefinery and development of alternative uses

Joana Antunez Rizzolo  1 , Adenise Lorenci Woiciechowski  1 , Antonio Irineudo Magalhães Júnior  1 , Luis Alberto Zevallos Torres  1 , Carlos Ricardo Soccol  1
Affiliations

The potential of sweet potato biorefinery and development of alternative uses

Joana Antunez Rizzolo et al. SN Appl Sci. 2021.

Abstract

The bioethanol production from the sweet potato variety BRS Cuia using three different strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae (LPB1-93, ATCC-26602, and CA-11) was carried out in this research. Comparative analyses of consumed sugar, ethanol yield, and productivity (in tons per hectare) increased along with the concentration of cells in the inoculum. Additionally, to verify the aromatic quality of a potential sweet potato distilled spirit, volatile organic compounds were analyzed. The results showed a yield of over 90% ethanol. It was observed that the sugar consumption and ethanol production rates can be increased with a higher initial concentration of cells. This resulted in higher concentrations of ethanol in shorter times. From 100 g of the sweet potato variety BRS Cuia, the highest concentration of ethanol obtained was 25.74 g L-1 using the LPB1-93 strain. The estimated bioethanol production is about 10,000 L ha-1, with two sweet potatoes crops in a year. The ethanol production from the sweet potato variety BRS Cuia is viable, representing a sustainable alternative to fuel bioethanol, as well as an alcoholic beverage due to the volatile organic compounds present in the distilled fraction.

Keywords: Distilled sprit; Ethanol; Fermentation; Sweet potato.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interestThe authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
World sweet potato production in 2017 (adapted from FAOSTAT, 2017). (By Bing platform, GeoNames, HERE, MSFT, Microsoft, NavInfo, Wikipedia)
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Sugar consumption from sweet potato hydrolysate and ethanol production using by different S. cerevisiae strains LPB1-93 (A and B), CA-11 (C and D), and ATCC-26602 (E and F) with two starting inoculum size of 107 (A, C, and E) and 108 (B, D, F) cells/mL at pH 5.0 and 30 °C: (square) glucose; (diamond) maltose; (triangle) fructose; and (circle) ethanol
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Conversion process of sweet potato into ethanol
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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