LAUSR

Experimental characterisation of five biomass wastes: corn cobs, cassava peels, rice husks, white yam peels and sugar cane bagasse based on proximate analysis and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis has been reported in this study due to their huge inherent potential for bioethanol production. XRD gave an indication of the presence of cellulose and carbon in the biomasses. Thermo-gravimetric analysis showed that the cellulose composition of the five biomasses is quite close, with sugar cane bagasse having the highest content of 39.8 wt % and cassava peels biomass presented the lowest content of 25.8 wt %. For each of the biomasses presented in this study, their cellulose content is in conformity with reported values from previous work on them. The results demonstrate that the collected lignocellulosic biomasses are a potential substrate for energy and bioethanol production which can constitute a huge market as the biomasses are sustainably produced as wastes in Nigeria.