Bioethanol Production from Waste and Nonsalable Date Palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) Fruits: Potentials and Challenges

Abstract

Balancing the needs of current and future generations stimulates investment for sustainable development such as converting waste biomass into biorenewables. Sugar-based ethanol production is a well-investigated and established process, and researchers are now focusing on the transformation of cellulosic biomass to sugar and the application of non-conventional methods for ethanol production. The State of Qatar generates date palm fruit waste of approximately 4505 tons annually, excluding ornamental palms and palms outside the farms that bear nonmarketable date fruits. Date fruit molasses contains fermentable sugars, representing 75% of the total fruit mass, which can offer a good source for bioethanol production through anaerobic fermentation and distillation. On this basis, the valorization of waste date fruits can be an effective zero-waste strategy via biotransformation into bio-renewable materials, hence, contributing to the achievement of sustainable development goals. This paper reviews the potentials and challenges for the utilization of waste date fruits as a bioethanol source and assesses the abundance of waste date fruits as raw material for the conventional bioethanol conversion process. The review also identified conventional and nonconventional processes for bioethanol production and their applicability to Qatar. Finally, this confirmed ample demand for bioethanol ranging from fuel and industrial chemicals to pharmaceutical alcohol.