ABSTRACT

The world population is increasing day by day and this ultimately increases the energy demand constantly. The fossil fuel reserves are constantly depleting. And the use of fossil fuels causes severe environmental concerns. So, the world is diverting to the resources like ethanol to overcome the environmental issues and to meet the dem and of gasoline and diesel.
In this study the fruit peels of banana, mango and apple were used as a feed stock for ethanol production. The banana, mango, and apple peels were collected from a juice shop. Acid hydrolysis was performed in the energy laboratory at Energy and Environmen t Engineering department Quaid-e-Awam University of Engineering Science and Technology Nawabshah .
The dried fruit peels were ground to different size and acid hydrolysis was done at different solid loadings at different acid concentrations for different particle sizes. The selected parameters were particle size, solid loading, acid concentration, and the acid hydrolysis time. Furthermore the fermentation of apple peels yielded 1 .8%, ethanol, the mango peels yielded 2.2%, and banana peels 1.6%.
During the experiments of acid hydrolysis it was observed that maxim um sugar contents obtained at 8g/50ml of solid load ing, while the most su itable particle size for maximum sugar yield was 50mesh or 300µm. Furthermore the 15% acid concentration yielded maximum saccharification.
It is also concluded from this study that apple peels hydrolyze more rapidly as compared to banana and mango peels. The mango peels prod used more ethanol because mango has more sugar contents. It is also concluded from this study that the fruit pee l can be the sustainable and potential feedstock for ethanol production in future.