Experiments on non-enzymatic methanol release in the production of alcohol from potatoes

The methanol content of alcohol from potatoes is produced primarily by alkali ester hydrolysis and not by enzymatic ester hydrolysis of the pectins as shown by, the results of experiments with citrus petin solution mash identical potato pectin solution and potato mashes. In the case of citrus pectin, the activation energy of the ester hydrolysis was determined between 148 and 65 KJ/mol, depending on the pH-value. With the isolated potato pectin, practice-oriented methanol release which was independant of the activities of pectin esterases could be shown. The results were verified in mash experiments. A potential technological way of reducing the methanol release in the production of alcohols from potatoes is using lower pH-values at preprocessing heat treatment. For this liquefaction enzymes have to be found.