International Science Community Association Research Journal of Chemical Sciences 2231-606X 14 3 2024 10 18 Investigation of potentials Water hyacinth (Ecchornia crassipes) grown at Lake Koka and Lake Abaya for bioethanol production 13 24 EN George Mulongo 1 Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Gulu University, Gulu, Uganda Ananias Bagumire 2 National Food Safety Foundation (NFSF), the Affiliated Institution of the Food Safety Associates Limited, Kampala, Uganda Alfonse Opio 3 Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Gulu University, Gulu, Uganda Benard Abola 4 Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Science, Gulu University, Gulu, Uganda Hoyamo Genet 1 The Department of Biotechnology, College of Natural and Computational Sciences, Hawassa University, Hawassa, Ethiopia Adane Legesse 2 The Department of Chemistry, College of Natural and Computational Sciences, Hawassa University, Hawassa, Ethiopia Demirew Zerihun 3 The College of Agriculture, Hawassa University, Hawassa, Ethiopia Dananto Mihret 4 The Department of Water Resource Engineering and Management, Graduate School of Water resource and Irrigation Engineering, Hawassa University, Hawassa, Ethiopia > Research Paper 2024 4 21 2024 10 18 Scarcity, environmental pollution and increasing prices of fossil fuels are issues that forced human to search for alternative energy sources such as fuels from biomass (i.e., biofuels). Bioethanol is one of the biofuels that can be produced from lignocellulosic biomass. Water hyacinth (Ecchornia crassipes) is a lignocellulosic biomass that contains high cellulose and hemicellulose with low lignin that made it good candidate biomass for bioethanol production. However, the lignocellulosic composition of water hyacinth depends on the nutritional conditions habitats where the plant grows. This study was conducted to investigate water hyacinth grown in Lake Koka and Abaya, Ethiopia, for bioethanol production. The biomass collected from these sites (Lakes) were subjected to analysis of their mineral (N, K and P) compositions of water samples and lignocellulosic (cellulose, Hemicellulose and Lignin) compositions of Water hyacinth. The results revealed that the N, P and K levels to be 5.62, 0.81 and 0.64 mg/L, respectively, for Water sample from Lake Koka whereas the corresponding values were 3.68, 0.42 and 0.42 mg/L for water samples from Lake Abaya. The cellulose, Hemicellulose and Lignin values were 30.49, 41.30 and 4.51% for water hyacinth from Lake Koka whereas composition of for the biomass from Lake Abaya values were 25.02%, 39.93% and 8.42%, respectively, for cellulose, Hemicellulose and Lignin. The values for biomass from Lake Koka were slightly higher than that of biomass from Lake Abaya. The differences were attributed to differences in mineral composition of water samples of the lakes. The optimum condition for hydrolysis of lignocellulosic for bioethanol production from water hyacinth collected from Lake Koka were 1% sulphuric acid and 60 minutes whereas for water hyacinth from Lake Abaya the corresponding conditions were 1.5% sulphuric acid and 90 minutes. The ethanol yields were 37.22 and 31.22% for water hyacinth from Lake Koka and Lake Abaya, respectively. The bioethanol product was confirmed by boiling point and FTIR spectroscopic data. From this study it was concluded that higher ethanol product from biomass collected from Lake Koka could be attributed to higher cellulose and hemicellulose compositions and lower lignin as compared to the biomass collected from Lake Abaya. The biomass from Lake Koka is preferred for ethanol production not only because of higher ethanol yield but also it requires less concentrated acid (1% H2SO4) and shorter hydrolysis time (60 minutes). Thus, water hyacinth should be given a due attention as candidate biomass for bioethanol production as it is non-edible lignocellulosic biomass. However, continues efforts are recommended to develop optimum conditions that are cost effective for production of bioethanol from water hyacinth. Copyright@ International Science Community Association