Production of Ethanol from Waste Vegetables from a Warehouse

Abstract

A research was conducted to evaluate the viability to produce ethanol using vegetable waste produced at the second most important farm products warehouse in South America: Corabastos S.A. This warehouse is located in Bogotá D.C., Colombia. The research was divided in two phases, first a field study to characterize the waste products per warehouse, and second, an experiment sampling waste before and after a chemical treatment and fermentation, by measuring the amount of ethanol produced afterwards. Results indicated that it is possible to produce more than forty liters of crude ethanol per ton of waste by using the proposed chemical treatment. They also showed that fermenting waste did not increase production. Using the residues to produce ethanol will decrease the costs to dispose waste transporting it to sanitary filler. Additionally, the process will produce an alternative source of fuel, and will reduce negative environmental impact by reducing the production of greenhouse gases as a result of the use of fossil fuels