Journal of the Saudi Society of Agricultural Sciences xxx (2018) xxx–xxx

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Potentiometric of bioethanol production from cantaloupe waste

(Magassi Neishabouri Cultivar)
Rouhollah Salehi a,⇑, Ahmad Taghizadeh-Alisaraei a, Fakhri Shahidi b, Ahmad Jahanbakhshi c
a
Department of Biosystems Engineering, University of Gorgan, Gorgan, Iran
b
Department of Food Science and Technology, Ferdowsi University of Mashad, Mashhad, Iran
c
Department of Biosystems Engineering, University of Mohaghegh Ardabili, Ardabil, Iran

articleinfo abstract

Article history: The ever-increasing need of the human beings to energy has brought about concerns regarding the
Received 12 January 2018 decrease in the amount of energy resources. So, renewable energies have become very important and
Revised 9 May 2018 have obtained a special status in today’s world. Using bioethanol as a renewable resource to be blended
Accepted 28 May 2018 with other fuels in internal combustion engines has attracted many researchers to itself. Thus, in this
Available online xxxx study, we assess the amount of bioethanol extracted from cantaloupe waste (Magassi Neishabouri
Cultivar) to be used as a fuel. To do so, considering the 15 kg capacity of the device’s fermenter, 12 kg
Keywords: of refined cantaloupe sugar syrup and three kilograms of water (with the standard ratio of 4 to 1), i.e.
Bioethanol a total of 15 kg of substrate with the brix degree of 20, as well as 75 g of saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast,
Renewable energy cultured in standard conditions (5 g of yeast for each kilogram of substrate) were transferred into the fer-
Cantaloupe waste
menter. The tests were conducted in 35 h with three replications and at three different rotatio n speeds of
the fermenter’s mixer. Sampling took place every five hours. Fermentation temperature was set as 30 °C
and distillation temperature was set to be 78.5 °C which is the standard temperature of bioethanol’s boil-
ing point. The results showed that about 49.5 g of bioethanol were extracted from each kilogram of can -
taloupe syrup. In comparison to the results obtained by other researchers, it became clear that due to its
high sugar level, cantaloupe waste is one of the appropriate options for the production of bioethanol. In
addition, considering the rate of the alcohol produced and in order to optimize energy consumption, it
was seen that the best speed for the fermenter’s mixer, was 120 rpm.
© 2018 Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of King Saud University. This is an open access
article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

1. Introduction mental pollution due to increase in the amount of pollutants such

Nowadays, preparation of energy resources has become one of
the most important concerns of countries (Ghobadian et al.,
2009; Taghizadeh-Alisaraei et al., 2017). Fossil fuels have long been
used as the source of energy in internal combustion engines, power
plants, etc. The ever-increasing population and increase in the use
of fossil fuels, increase in the cost of oil products and decrease in
the reserves of such resources, have encouraged researchers to
search for new alternative resources. Besides, increase in environ-
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: salehirouhollah@yahoo.com (R. Salehi).
Peer review under responsibility of King Saud University.
Production and hosting by Elsevier
as unburned hydrocarbons (UHC), nitrogen oxides (NO x), carbon
monoxides (CO) and carbon dioxide (CO 2) produced by the use of
fossil fuels, is the main shortcoming for such fuels. In order to pre-
serve, save and make a more optimized use of the existing
resources and reduce environmental pollutions, it seems self-
evident and inevitable to be inclined to renewable energies
(Kalam et al., 2003). Ethanol is considered as renewable fuel since
it has a plant base. Having one oxygen molecule in its molecular
structure, ethanol needs less oxygen for combustion compared to
diesel fuels and gasoline. For the same reason it produces less pol-
lution (Li et al., 2005; Hansen et al., 2005). In addition, using waste
and producing fuels by them would reduce the expenses made to
transport and dump them. Through fermentation of some cucur-
bits some alcohol can be produced which is flammable. Consider-
ing the high amount of waste from cucurbits such as melon,
cantaloupe, watermelon, etc., research studies conducted on the
processing of the above products in the world are very few
(Rahimi, 2005).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jssas.2018.05.006
1658-077X/© 2018 Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of King Saud University.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Please cite this article in press as: Salehi, R., et al. Potentiometric of bioethanol production from cantaloupe waste (Magassi Neishabouri Cultivar). Journal
of the Saudi Society of Agricultural Sciences (2018), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jssas.2018.05.006
2 R. Salehi et al. / Journal of the Saudi Society of Agricultural Sciences xxx (2018) xxx–xxx
Cantaloupe or Cucumis melo L. is highly popular among people
for its high sugar level. According to global statistics provided by
the FAO, the area annually used to cultivate cantaloupe in Iran
and in the world is 79,992 and 1,308,018 ha, respectively and the
mean production levels for Iran and the world are 15.4 and 21.6
ton/ha, respectively (FAO, 2006).
In their study and modeling of sugar reduction in producing
bioethanol and carbon dioxide in the process of date fermentation,
Vaezizadeh et al. (2010) reported that during the fermentation pro-
cess, changes in the amount of carbon dioxide dropped signifi-
cantly by the passage of time and then stopped. Moreover, at the
end of the process, the rate of the soluble sugar decreased from a
brix degree of 20 to a brix degree of around 8 and the total amount
of bioethanol production from each kilogram of syrup with a brix
degree of 20 was about 72 g. Louhichi et al. (2013) studied the rate
of bioethanol extraction from three date cultivars. They reported
that for all the cultivars, the amount of the bioethanol obtained
was almost 25 vol% and about 316 g of bioethanol was produced
for each kilogram of substrate. In a study, Ghorbani et al. (2009)
reported that sugar concentration is a very important factor in
the fermentation process. They stated that a high concentration
of substrate prevents the growth of the ferment, stops the produc-
tion of alcohol and disturbs the metabolism of the microorganism.
Moreover, a sugar concentration within the 5–25 range had a sig-
nificant inhibitory effect and in 40 percent of the cases led to the
complete stop of the microorganism activity. Corbin et al. (2015)
studied ethanol production from grape sugar syrup. They carried
out a test one two different varieties of grapes, namely red and
white grapes. They reported that if the grape sugar syrup is fer-
mented without hydrolysis, 270 g of bioethanol is can be extracted
from each liter of syrup and if the hydrolysis takes place first and
then fermentation happens, 400 g of bioethanol can be extracted
from each liter of sugar syrup. Khalil et al. (2015) conducted a
study on the production of bioethanol from sweet cluster corn
waste. First, they hydrolyzed the product under acidity conditions
for 60 min at the temperature of 120 oC. In the end, they reported
50 g of alcohol production for each kilogram of corn sugar syrup.
Fig. 1. Bioethanol extraction device: (1) Control box, (2) Electromotor, (3) Hydrolysis tank, (4) Fermenter tank, (5) Refrigerant and (6) Chassis.
Please cite this article in press as: Salehi, R., et al. Potentiometric of bioethanol production from cantaloupe waste (Magassi Neishabouri Cultivar). Journal
of the Saudi Society of Agricultural Sciences (2018), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jssas.2018.05.006
Moreover, they estimated that the SS-301 species had the potential
to produce 160 g of bioethanol from each liter of sugar syrup.
Iran is one of the important poles of cantaloupe production and
the production of other cucurbits. Unfortunately, more than 30
percent of these products are destroyed in the production chain
between the farm and the consumption areas. This is a very high
percentage and thus we are required to conduct deep analyses
about the processing of different parts of the products and the pro-
duction of essential products and think about ways to optimally
use the wastes. In this regard, the present study aims at assessing
the amount of bioethanol extraction from cantaloupe waste
(Magassi Neishabouri Cultivar) which can significantly contribute
to the optimization of cantaloupe waste use.
2. Materials and methods
Ethanol can be obtained from the cellulose, sugar and starch
sources in agricultural products (Chintagunta et al., 2016; Smuga-
Kogut et al., 2017). Thus, in this study the rate of the sugars in
cantaloupe waste that could be transformed using an HPLC Waters
600 Controller was measured. Bioethanol extraction device used in
this study consisted of two different parts: (1) hydrolysis reactor
(which precisely controls temperature parameters and the
rotation speed of the mixer so that pressure cooking is made
possible to hydrolyze starch and turn it into simple transformable
sugars. (2) Fermentation reactor (which controls temperature and
rotation speed of the mixer, makes sampling possible, has a system
for drying bioethanol and adjusting the aeration rate for better and
faster growth of the yeast) (Fig. 1).
The stages of the research are reported in Fig. 2.
In this study, cantaloupe (Magassi Neishabouri Cultivar) waste
was used to extract bioethanol. To do so, cantaloupe waste was
turned into a strong pulpy liquid by an electric fruit juicer. Syrup
was made with a 70 percent concentration after refining the liquid.
Then, considering the 15 kg capacity of the device’s fermenter, 12
kg of refined cantaloupe sugar syrup and three kilograms of water
(with the standard ratio of 4 to 1), i.e. a total of 15 kg of substrate
 R. Salehi et al. / Journal of the Saudi Society of Agricultural Sciences xxx (2018) xxx–xxx 3

gram of glucose can produce 0.51 g of ethanol. So, 50% of glucose

turns into ethanol and 50% of it changes to carbon dioxide. In the
next step, the alcohol produced must turn into vapor. For this,
the distillation temperature of 78.5 °C which is the standard tem-
perature of ethanol’s boiling point was used. High purity ethanol
cannot be produced through usual distillation methods. Although
ethanol’s boiling point is close to 79 °C and water’s boiling point
is 100 °C, when the solution of ethanol and water is heated up to
ethanol’s boiling temperature, only 95% alcohol can be obtained.
After the distillation of ethanol and water, ethanol-water azeo-
trope (95% ethanol and 5% water) can be obtained. Therefore, for
drying bioethanol, the output path for the bioethanol to exit the
fermenter where bioethanol is at the vapor phase, was designed
in a way that it passed through a zeolite column and the water
was absorbed by the zeolite on the way (Tosheva, 2001). At the last
stage, after passing through the zeolite column, the vaporized
bioethanol enters a double-shelled cooling path where water is
used as the liquid for cooling bioethanol vapor. Later, the bioetha-
nol vapor is turned into bioethanol liquid and enters the tank where
the produced ethanol is stored.
Fig. 2. Different stages of bioethanol extraction from cantaloupe waste.
Each of the tests was replicated three times. In the end, the
means of the data obtained were analyzed using Excel 2013 and
the results were reported in the form of graphs.
with the brix degree of 20 was transferred into the fermenter. In
the next step, 75 g of the saccharomyces cervisiae (5 g of yeast
3. Results and conclusion
for every kilogram of substrate) which had been cultured under
standard conditions was added to the 15 kg of substrate in the tank
The rate of the transformable sugars that exist in cantaloupe is
(Sarkar et al., 2012; Duarte et al., 2009). After that, the rate of sugar
reported in Fig. 3.
that existed in the substrate with the brix degree of 20 was mea-
As can be seen, due to the high amount of glucose and sucrose
sured by the Hand Held Refractometer (PAL-3) which was made
in cantaloupe waste, it can be used as one of the main resources for
in Japan.
bioethanol production in the country. Changes in the amounts of
In order to assess the device’s work and specify the standard
alcohol produced during the fermentation process at different
rotation speed for the fermentation operation in the fermenter,
mixer speeds are reported in Fig. 4.
the device was tested under anaerobic fermentation conditions
The results indicate that at the mixer speed of 120 rpm, ethanol
for 35 h which included the time needed to make a suspension at
production is more favorable compared to other speeds and this
the constant fermentation temperature of 30 °C (the temperature
might be due to better blending and lower turbulence of the flow.
28–30 °C is the appropriate and optimal temperature for the
It can also be seen that by increasing the speed of the fermenter’s
growth of the saccharomyces yeast), the rotation speeds of 120,
mixer, the rate of the alcohol produced decreases and this is while
130 and 140 rpms and the distillation temperature of 78.5 °C.
there is not much difference in the amount of the alcohol produced
During the time the samples were being fermented (35 h), sam-
at different speeds. This might be due to improper comparisons
pling took place seven times (every five hours). After each sam-
that lead to inaccurate judgments stating there is not much differ-
pling, the rate of the ferment growth and production of alcohol
ence among different mixer speeds in the fermenter. Therefore, it is
in the substrate was measured using a Digital Alcohol Tester with
suggested that in order to prevent energy waste, it is better not to
the brand name of Milwaukeeinst-MA884. The little differences in
use speeds above 120 rpm in the fermenter. These results are con-
the data obtained after measuring the alcohol in the substrate (the
sistent with the results obtained by Apar and Özbek (2004).
5th, the 6th and the 7th sampling) indicated that almost all of the
convertible sugar that existed in the substrate could be turned into
alcohol through the saccharomyces yeast. Thus, the continuation of
that trend could affect the device’s performance regarding energy
consumption. Measuring the amount of alcohol produced by fer-
mentation can be a better determiner of fermentation rate. The
alcohol tester used in this study, reported the amount of the alco-
hol produced in the substrate based on the volume percentage of
alcohol. Thus, to obtain the weight percentage of the alcohol pro-
duced, the values obtained were divided by alcohol’s density
(0.79). In similar studies, Zeng et al. (2012) reported that for all
the substrates applied, the amount of the sugar remained after
36 h of fermentation could be ignored.
According to relation (1), measuring the rate of glucose to etha-
nol transformation in the process of fermentation, one mole glu-
cose is turned into two moles of carbon dioxide and two moles
of ethanol:
C 6 H12 O6 ! 2C 2 H5 OH þ 2CO2 ð1Þ
This phenomenon results in the reduction of weight and can
give an ascending trend to ethanol production. Theoretically, each Fig. 3. Convertible sugars existing in cantaloupe.

Please cite this article in press as: Salehi, R., et al. Potentiometric of bioethanol production from cantaloupe waste (Magassi Neishabouri Cultivar). Journal
of the Saudi Society of Agricultural Sciences (2018), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jssas.2018.05.006
4 R. Salehi et al. / Journal of the Saudi Society of Agricultural Sciences xxx (2018) xxx–xxx
Fig. 4. Changes in the rate of alcohol produced in the process of fermenting
cantaloupe waste at different rotation speeds of the fermenter’s mixer.
Changes in the amount of alcohol produced in the process of
cantaloupe waste fermentation show that within 30 h from the
beginning of the fermentation process (the sixth stage of measur-
ing alcohol rate), the rate of the alcohol produced at all the mixer
speeds, is about five percent. In other words, for each kilogram of
substrate, around 50 g of alcohol produced. In the times higher
than 30 h, it can be seen that the alcohol production rate is very
imperceptible and unstable. To save energy and time in the process
of producing bioethanol from cantaloupe waste, it is better to
reduce the time from 35 h to 30 h. These results are consistent
with the findings of Vaezizadeh et al. (2010) in investigating and
modeling sugar reduction and bioethanol and carbon dioxide pro-
duction in the process of date fermentation.
The mean rate of bioethanol produced from each kilogram of
cantaloupe syrup at different mixer speeds in the fermenter is
reported in Fig. 5.
After the complete distillation of the substrate at of 78.5 °C,
which is the standard temperature of the bioethanol boiling point
and weighing the amount of the extracted bioethanol, the results
showed that the mean amounts of the extracted bioethanol from
the wastes of the Mgassi Neishabouri cultivar of cantaloupe at dif-
ferent speeds of the fermenter mixer (120, 130 and 140 rpm) were
respectively 49.5, 47 and 44.5 g of bioethanol from each kilogram
of cantaloupe syrup with the brix degree of around 20. Therefore,
considering the results of the present study, it can be stated that
the best performance of the device takes place at the mixer speed
Fig. 5. The rate of the bioethanol produced for each kilogram of cantaloupe syrup at
different speeds of the fermenter’s mixer.
Please cite this article in press as: Salehi, R., et al. Potentiometric of bioethanol production from cantaloupe waste (Magassi Neishabouri Cultivar). Journal
of the Saudi Society of Agricultural Sciences (2018), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jssas.2018.05.006
of 120 rpm not only with respect to the amount of the alcohol pro-
duced in the fermenter but also regarding the rate of the bioetha-
nol produced compared to other speeds. In addition, in similar
studies, the rates of the bioethanol obtained from apples were
43 g and from grapes were 53 g (Hang et al., 1981, 1986). So, con-
sidering the rate of the fermented sugar in the fermenter chamber,
the amount of the ethanol produced in this study is considerable
compared to similar studies mentioned above. This, in fact, can
be considered as a good performance for the fermenter device
too. Also, in the statistical analysis because of the absence of com-
mon alphabets on mean of treatments, the results showed a signif-
icant difference at the probability level of 1%.
4. Conclusion
Based on the accurate data obtained in the present study, the
following general findings can be stated:
1. Although bioethanol production has improved due to the use of
advanced technologies, there is still room for more studies on
this topic. These studies include preserving yeasts in industrial
production, more improvement of the lignocellulose material
preparation technologies and investigation and optimization
of the necessary parameters for economizing ethanol produc-
tion systems.
2. Considering the results obtained regarding bioethanol produc-
tion from cantaloupe waste (Magassi Neishabouri culrivar)
which showed that about 49.5 g of bioethanol was extracted
from each kilogram of cantaloupe waste. Comparing these
results with those obtained by other researchers, it became
known that cantaloupe waste is one of the best alternatives
for bioethanol production due to its high level of sugar.
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Please cite this article in press as: Salehi, R., et al. Potentiometric of bioethanol production from cantaloupe waste (Magassi Neishabouri Cultivar). Journal
of the Saudi Society of Agricultural Sciences (2018), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jssas.2018.05.006