Extraction, Characterization and Determination of Ethanol Fuel Composite Qualities of Saccharum officinarum, Pennisetum purpureum and Costus afer

Ethanol was extracted from Pennisetum purpureum (Napier grass), Costus afer (Spiral ginger) and Saccharum officinarum (Cane sugar) to determine their respective and comparative yield and also to determine its fuel composite qualities. Samples were selected from water logged area at Uturu, Abia State. They were cut into bits, measuring 1 cm to 5 cm in length and dried under sunlight. The dried samples were pounded to pulp and transferred into 15 L buckets, where it was allowed to ferment with the aid of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and water. Fermentation was completed in four days and the filtrates of the various samples subjected to distillation to yield ethanol. Redistillation of the ethanol was carried out using a reflux condenser to yield a very pure ethanol. Ethanol yield of the three samples were found to be 500 mL/Kg of Saccharum officinarum, 150 mL/Kg of Pennisetum purpureum and 279 mL/Kg of costus afer. Percentage purity of the ethanol was found to be 95.8%, specific gravity (S.G) was 0.7620 Kg/L and the boiling point range was 80oC-90oC. The ethanol-PMS blend showed significant increase in the Rated octane number (RON) with a decrease in the Reid vapour pressure (RVP) as the blend ratio increased. Conversely, increasing the ethanol-PMS blend revealed systematic changes in the distillation profile with respect to Initial boiling point (IBP), Final boiling point (FBP) and Total recovery (TR) with reference to the standard distillation data of pure PMS.

Author(s): Jude C. Igwe*, Kalu E. Agbaeze, Anthony I. Obike and Christopher U. Sonde

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