ETHANOL PRODUCTION THROUGH ZYMOMONAS MOBILIS FERMENTATION IN COGONGRASS CELLULOSE SUBSTRATE HYDROLYZED BY PENICILLIUM SP. T1.2

In the cogongrass cellulose found tightly bound with hemicellulose and lignin coated by forming a complex
lignocellulose so that to free the bond required an important early stages namely pretreatment. Glucose derived
fermentation process was then performed. Ethanol production of cogongrass has been widely used
yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, optimum ethanol produced 4.59% (v/v) for 24 hours and 0.73% (v/v) for 72 days.
Meanwhile Zymomonas mobilis only took 24 hours to produce ethanol using sweet potato raw materials. Therefore,
this research used different substrate and aimed to determine the potential of cogongrass (Imperata cylindrica (L)
Beauv.) in ethanol production using Zymomonas mobilis bacteria at optimum concentrations of inoculum and
fermentation time span. After pretreatment, the cellulose converted into glucose by the enzyme hydrolysis. This
enzyme hydrolysis utilizing cellulase enzyme-producing mold, Penicillium sp. T1.2 code, a collection of the Laboratory
of Microbiology and Biotechnology, Department of Biology, ITS. The use of this mold based on its ability to produce
-glucosidase, and exoglucanase in high amounts. Cogongrass showed potential as raw material for
ethanol production with the highest ethanol concentration 9.02% (v/v) were obtained from the interaction between
the inoculum concentrations of 10% and the time of fermentation by Zymomonas mobilis for 7 days.