International Journal of Statistics and Actuarial Science 2017; 1(4): 92-100 http://www.sciencepublishinggroup.com/j/ijsas doi: 10.11648/j.ijsas.20170104.11 Statistical Investigation on the Hydrolysis and Fermentation Processes of Cassava Peels in the Production of Bioethanol Adenomon Monday Osagie 1 , Evans Patience Ogheneofejiro 2 , Tela Musa Nma 3 1 Statistics Unit, Department of Mathematical Sciences, Nasarawa State University, Keffi, Nigeria 2 Department of Mathematics, The Federal Polytechnic, Bida, Nigeria 3 Department of Statistics, The Federal Polytechnic, Bida, Nigeria Email address: admonsagie@gmail.com (A. M. Osagie) To cite this article: Adenomon Monday Osagie, Evans Patience Ogheneofejiro, Tela Musa Nma. Statistical Investigation on the Hydrolysis and Fermentation Processes of Cassava Peels in the Production of Bioethanol. International Journal of Statistics and Actuarial Science. Vol. 1, No. 4, 2017, pp. 92-100. doi: 10.11648/j.ijsas.20170104.11 Received: March 14, 2017; Accepted: April 17, 2017; Published: August 1, 2017 Abstract: There are several types of experiments which require statistical investigation. These are characterized by the nature of treatments under investigation and also the nature of comparison required among them so as to meet the objectives of the experiment. To achieve this, cassava peels was collected from Kasuwa Gwari market Minna, Niger state dried and taken for hydrolysis and fermentation processes. Temperature, acid concentration, cassava biomass ratio, ph and time were varied to get the optimum yield of reducing sugar. Curve fitting and a two-way analysis of variance were used in analyzing the data. Most of the results from the experiment follows quadratic model. Furthermore, time and temperature were very significant in both hydrolysis and fermentation processes. We therefore concluded that for hydrolysis process yield is optimum at 110°C and 30mins, while for fermentation process yield is optimum at 35°C and at 6 days and 7 days respectively. Keywords: Statistical Investigation, Hydrolysis, Fermentation, Processes, Cassava, Production, Bioethanol 1. Introduction In African, Cassava is the third largest source of carbohydrate in food for human comsuption in the world [1]. That is why cassava (also known as Manihot esculenta crantz) is highly cultivated in African and in Nigeria in particular. In addition, cassava roots plays important role in African diet and are processed using simple methods. For instance, in Nigeria cassava can be processed to produce Gari, Fufu and Lafun floor [1]. Since cassava is in abundant in Nigeria, many times the cassava peels are wasted or converted to animal feeds. Cassava peels contains high level of hydrogen cyanide, this toxic compound is remove by drying the peel under the sun in order to make it suitable for animal feeds [2]. Also researchers have found that cassava peel has some element of Bioethanol inherent in it. Bioethanol is being considered as a potential liquid fuel due to the limited amount of natural resources [3]. And such bioethanol can be found in non-food waste, such as cassava peel. But this present work focused on statistical investigation of the processing of producing bioethanol from cassava peel. There are several types of experiments which require statistical investigation. These are characterized by the nature of treatments under investigation and also the nature of comparison required among them so as to meet the objectives of the experiment [4]. Curve fitting is the process of constructing a curve, or mathematical function, that has the best fit to a series of data points, possibly subject to constraints. Curve fitting can involve either interpolation, where an exact fit to the data is required, or smoothing, in which a "smooth" function is constructed that approximately fits the data. Fitted curves can be used as an aid for data visualization, to infer values of a function where no data are available, and to summarize the