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Fermentable sugars are important prerequisite for ethanol production. These sugars
are insufficient for production of the required amount of ethanol for Nigeria
consumption in spite availability of raw materials. This study is aimed at producing
fermentable sugars by pretreatment and hydrolysis of cassava peels using Aspergillus
niger and their crude enzymes (amylase, cellulase and pectinase), as well
as comparing the reducing sugar yield. Cassava peels were pretreated by soaking
and a combination of soaking and boiling at varying time. Hydrolysis of pretreated
cassava peels with Aspergillus niger and crude enzymes were carried out
for 5 and 15 days, respectively. The result showed that pretreatment by soaking
and boiling for up to 120 min removed the highest amount of cyanide and increased
amount of carbohydrate produced but reduced the fibre content (37.04±0.01
mg g-1, 71.42±0.02 and 10.38±0.42%). Hydrolysis using
Aspergillus niger yielded up to 95.44±0.11 mg g-1 reducing
sugar while hydrolysis using enzymes yielded up to 72.38±0.06 mg g-1
reducing sugar. The study revealed the potentials of cassava peels in reducing
sugar production. Soaking and boiling of cassava peels for 120 min removed more
cyanide and yielded high carbohydrate needed for reducing sugar production. Microbial
cells are better tools that could be used for hydrolysis of carbohydrate to reducing
sugars than their enzymatic products.
