Produksi Etanol dari Rumput Laut Sargassum sp. dan Limbah Agar Gracilaria sp.

Abstract

Nowadays, problems in the scarcity energy is big problem faced by human. This problem emerges because most energy sources come from fossil fuel that having limitation in its availability. Beside that, combustion of fossil fuel results negative impact to the environment. Therefore, exploration of a new fuel which more safe for environment and renewable is required. One of solution to overcome the problems in energy source is by using bioethanol,which can be produced from biomass contains sugars in its chemical composition. Seaweed has high potency as feedstock to produce bioethanol because having high content of carbohydrate, simple cultivation technology, wide cultivation area as well as harvest time that is relatively short ( range around 4 to 6 weeks) and good CO2 absorption abilty. Indonesia has many diversity in seaweed species, and potentially used as raw material for hydrocolloid industry, such as Porphyroglossum sp., Pterocladia sp., Sargassum sp., and Gracilaria sp. In this research fresh Sargassum sp. and agar waste of Gracilaria sp. were used as fuel feedstock in bioethanol production. The results from proximate analysis for Sargassum sp. showed that major components were mineral/ash and carbohydrate, while for agar waste of Gracilaria sp. was crude fiber. High component especially in carbohydrate and crude fiber contents showed its potency as carbon source for bioethanol fermentation. On the pretreatment using acid hydrolysis, high soluble sugars produced from Sargassum sp. was obtained from acid hydrolysis using H2SO4 concentration of 2 % for 20 minutes which result 0.649 g/l of reducing sugar and 1.015 g/l of total sugar, while for agar waste of Gracilaria sp. was obtained from acid hydrolysis using H2SO4 concentration of 1.5 % for 10 minutes which result 0.157 g/l of reducing sugar and 0.205 g/l of total sugar. From result of fermentation analysis, for the fermentation of Sargassum sp. yielded ethanol 0.18 % (v/v) while for the fermentation of agar waste of Gracilaria sp. yielded ethanol 0.11 % (v/v). This low ethanol rate yields probably becaused by the low availibility of sugar as well as existence of yeast growth inhibitor compound and poison like furfural in acid hydrolysis further products.