Liquefaction: Liquefaction is basically first step of converting starch to alcohol.

The process steps are gelatinization, liquefaction, saccharification, distillation. The Design Basis of the plant is Starch (minimum): 60-62 % (w/w) Water (maximum): 10-12 %(w/w) Dry Substances: 88-90 %(w/w) For alcohol production we are mainly concerned with the starch content. In average grain contains 70% of starch. Starch is found in nature as insoluble, non-dispersible granules resistant to enzyme breakdown. Starch can be separated into two fractionsamylose and amylopectin. Natural starches are mixtures of amylose (10-20%) and amylopectin (80-90%). Amylose forms a colloidal dispersion in hot water whereas amylopectin is completely insoluble. The structure of amylose consists of long polymer chains of glucose units connected by an alpha acetal linkage. All of the monomer units are alpha -D-glucose, and all the alpha acetal links connect C # 1 of one glucose to C # 4 of the next glucose

Amylopectin is branched polymer of glucose units joined by 1-4 alpha linkages in linear section & crossed linked by 1-6 alpha linkage. A molecule of amylopectin consists of 500-40,000 glucose units. In its native form, starch consists of

microscopic, partially crystalline, granules which are insoluble in water and very susceptible to enzymatic hydrolysis. Gelatinization is the swelling of the starch granule i n the presence of heat and water. The starch loses its crystallinity and becomes an amorphous gel that can be attacked by enzymes. At this point, the starch or ground grain slurry thickens considerably and would be difficult to process if an alpha-amylase were not added to partially hydrolyze the starch to dextrins. The dextrin solution is much more fluid , thus, we say the starch gel is liquefied . The alpha-amylase serves to reduce the viscosity of the solution and also to produce a lower molecular size substrate. This smaller substrate molecule is needed for the efficient action of glucoamylase which hydrolyzes the dextrin to glucose. As describe above, the hydrolysis of starch to glucose requires two types of enzymes, The alpha-amylase is a bacterial thermo stable endo-amylase. It hydrolyzes 1-4 bonds at random points in the starch molecule to rapidly reduce the viscosity of gelatinized starch solutions. The enzyme cannot hydrolyze 1-6 bonds but can bypass these branch points in amylopectin. The product of the reaction is dextrin short glucose chains, and small amount of glucose and maltose. The action of alphaamylase on amylopectin is illustrated in following figure:

Glucoamylase or Amyloglucosidase (AMG) produced by fungi, i s an exoamylase. It hydrolyzes the maltose and dextrin from the non-reducing end of the molecule. Glucoamylase hydrolyzes both 1-4 and 1-4 bonds to completely degrade the dextrin to glucose. A small amount of starch contains Blocked linkages, which

cannot be broken by these enzymes. This unconverted portion is called Residual Starch& for this reason 100% theoretical yield cannot be achieved. Enzyme Alpha-amylase Amyloglucosidase Optimum pH 5.5-6.0 4.25-4.75 Optimum temperature 85-95 C 55-60 C