Bioethanol derived from rice straw agricultural waste as alternative energy towards a pollution-free era

Abstract Rice production occupies the first position as raw material for bioethanol production, with a total output throughout Indonesia of 56.63 million tons in 2023 (BPS, 2023). The purpose of this innovation is to create bioethanol derived from new raw materials, namely rice straw, by applying the simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) method for the conversion of lignocellulose into alcohol, which will produce bioethanol with a purity level of about 99% with a more efficient process. This method goes through several processes, including breaking the size of the rice straw to 0.1 mm and mixing it with several bacteria for fermentation and hydrolysis. The saccharification process is also carried out until the distillation process to make high levels of bioethanol. Bioethanol from the simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) method is tested using an Octane Number Analyzer to determine the octane number content. The test included mixing bioethanol with Pertamax 92 to prove the effect of adding bioethanol to Pertamax, and the result was 93.1. Therefore, the innovation of making bioethanol from rice straw with the SSF method is expected to be a solution for Indonesia towards a pollution-free era.