Maja Vukašinović

PROGRESS IN THE PRODUCTION OF BIOETHANOL ON STARCH-BASED FEEDSTOCKS*

Bioethanol produced from renewable biomass, such as sugar, starch, or lignocellulosic materials, is one of the alternative energy resources, which is both renewable and environmentally friendly. Although, the priority in global future ethanol production is put on lignocellulosic processing, which is considered as one of the most promising second-generation biofuel technologies, the utilization of lignocellulosic material for fuel ethanol is still under improvement. Sugar-based (molasses, sugar cane, sugar beet) and starch-based (corn, wheat, triticale, potato, rice, etc.) feedstock are still currently predominant at the industrial level and they are, so far, economically favorable compared to lingocelluloses. Currently, approx. 80 % of total world ethanol production is obtained from the fermentation of simple sugars by yeast. In Serbia, one of the most suitable and available agricultural raw material for the industrial ethanol production are cereals such as corn, wheat and triticale. In addition, surpluses of this feedstock are being produced in our country constantly. In this paper, a brief review of the state of the art in bioethanol production and biomass availability is given, pointing out the progress possibilities on starch-based production. The progress possibilities are discussed in the domain of feedstock choice and pretreatment, optimization of fermentation, process integration and utilization of the process byproducts.

Composition and Antimicrobial Activity of Essential Oil of Satureja montana L. Collected in Serbia and Montenegro

Abstract The chemical composition of the essential oil of Satureja montana L. subsp. montana (Lamiaceae), obtained from the air-dried plant material by hydrodistillation, was analyzed using GC and GC/MS. The major components were thymol (33.4%) and p-cymene (28.8%). The essential oil was tested against five bacterial species by the agar well diffusion technique. All of the bacteria are potential skin contaminants. The oil and its 5% solution in ethanol showed antimicrobial activity against all of the tested bacteria. The most susceptible organisms were Corynebacterium sp., while the most resistant organism was Pseudomonas aeruginosa.