Ethanol Producing Potential of Mouse Barley (Hordeum murinum subspecies leporinum)

Overview

Objectives/Goals The focus of my project is to select an energy crop that requires less fertilizer input, does not compete with food supply and can use low-value land. Plants from the grass family fulfill all these criteria. However, efficient and cost-effective pretreatment of grass cellulose is a challenge. My hypothesis is that higher hydrochloric acid concentrations and longer durations of sterilization will result in greater sugar and theoretical alcohol yields for a local grass known as Mouse Barley (Hordeum murinum subspecies leporinum). Methods/Materials Pulverized grass was subjected to nine different pre-treatments based on two independent variables: 1) HCl at 1.5%, 3% and 4.5% concentrations 2) sterilization at 20 psi for 15, 30 and 45 minutes. Three replicates were done for each of the 9 treatments. The values were then subjected to the ANOVA to test the significant differences. Then, multiple test comparisons were made using two sample paired t-test for means (alpha = 0.05). Results The mean sugar contents (percent) were 0.32 for 1.5% HCl/15 minutes, 0.48 (3%/15min), 0.59 (4.5%/15min), 0.35 (1.5%/30min), 0.48 (3%/30min), 0.60 (4.5%/30min), 0.35 (1.5%/45min), 0.48 (3%/45min) and 0.59 for 4.5% HCl/ 45 minutes. Conclusions/Discussion My conclusion is higher hydrochloric acid concentrations alone resulted in greater sugar and theoretical alcohol yields for Mouse Barley.

Awards (1)

• First Place

Competition history

• CSEF 2012 Chemistry · Entry J0612

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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