Power alcohol from agricultural and agro-industrial products an appropriate measure to develop energy sources for agricultural developing country

Five starchy substrates and one sugary substrate, namely, broken glutinous rice, broken rice, maize, sorghum, cassava and molasses were used in a comparative study of alcohol production. Chemical compositions of all substrates were analyzed to compare the fermentable content and biological supporting and inhibiting factors of organisms used. For starchy substrate, starch must be saccharified into fermentable sugar before introduction of the fermenting yeast, whereas molasses to be converted directly to alcohol. Two species of molds namely Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus oryzae were used as saccharifying agents as used in the traditional alcohol production. Aspergillus oryzae was found to be the better species of the two species of molds studied. The saccharification process was maximized its end product by optimizing the saccharifying conditions of the produced mold enzymes. Broken glutinous rice and broken rice were found to be the most suitable substrates for alcohol production of all starchy substrates studied because of their very high fermentable content and high efficiency of saccharification and fermentation. For both starchy and sugary substrates studied, molasses was found to be the most suitable substrate for alcohol production from both technical and economic point of view. For power alcohol utilization, it had been proved that it was tecnically feasible to use 15% alcohol (95% ethanol) blended with lead-free gasoline in the internal combustion engine without requiring any modifications of the engines. There were not any unusual engine wear or mechanical problems in the engines that used this blending fuel. The decisive factors which will eventually determine power alcohol production and utilization as vehicle fuel was the amount of power alcohol to be produced and to be used. Three alternatives of power alcohol production and utilization were assumed basing on the capacity of alcohol production facilities available, availability of raw material and percentage of projected total gasoline consumption in 1979 to be substituted by power alcohol.