A Review of Production of Ethanol from Corn

Ethanol production is being done from many sugar and starch crops, out of which maize plant seems to be commonly used. Parts of the maize plant like its stalk, cobs, kernelsetc have been put to use for the extraction of ethanol. The cellulosic portions of the plant requires essential pretreatment methods in order to efficiently convert the biomass into ethanol. Drymilling is commonly preferred to wet milling for reasons like high efficiency and low operating costs. Physical and chemical treatments are adopted in cases where enzymes are not chosen. Fermentation could be carried out in many types of reactors like batch, fedbatch, fluidized bed reactors etc. But there are several problems associated with the pretreatment and fermentation methods. The aim is to overcome such issues and to provide the conditions essential for a better yield.This paper reviews about a few original research work carried out in optimizing various parameters influencing the effective production of ethanol.The co culture of organisms like Aspergillus niger and Saccharomyces Cerevisiae were used in the Simultaneous Saccharification and Fermentation.