Effects of non-ionic surfactants on bioethanol production using extracted cellulose from wheat straw and kinetic studies

Wheat straw is one of the main by-products of agriculture. The effect of four different non-ionic surfactants, like Tween 20, Tween 80, Polyethylene glycol (PEG) 4000, and PEG 6000, on bioethanol production applying simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) technology using cellulose extracted from wheat straw as the substrate was investigated in this study. Modified Gompertz model was used to describe the formation kinetics of bioethanol from extracted cellulose. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analyses were used to determine the effect of extraction and fermentation on the structure of samples. The results showed that bioethanol concentration increased by 9.62% with the addition of Tween 80. Kinetic studies showed that a maximum bioethanol concentration of 24.84 g/L and a maximum bioethanol production rate of 8.90 g/L/h were observed respectively with the addition of Tween 80. The extraction and fermentation processes had a great influence on the surface and composition of samples by FTIR, SEM, and XRD characterization. This work shows that Tween series surfactants are beneficial to enhance bioethanol production from lignocellulosic biomass.