The present work deals with the idea of ethanol
production from the flower stalks of the plant F. communis L.,
which is a plant dominating in eastern Mediterranean
region in sunny dry hills, walls, waste ground and limestone
[7], often in soils that are damp in the spring [6] well adapted
to the peculiarities of the Mediterranean climate, thus
capable of facing climatic stresses [1]. It produces clumps of
big threadlike leaves in winter and spring and goes dormant
by midsummer according to the climatic conditions. After
several years it produces a massive flower stalk, up to about
2 m tall with numerous clusters of yellow flowers. It sometimes
dies after flowering. The aim of the study was not to
optimize the process, but to indicate whether F. communis
L. could be potentially used for ethanol production. The
plant is characterized by two major growing phases: (a) the
vegetative phase for its leaf emergence (3e4 first years) and
(b) the flowering phase during the spring that follows the
first phase. The species responds to the prolonged dry
summer by shedding all its leaves. The flower stalks of the
plant (see Fig. 1) remain standing carrying the seed pods of
the plant. The flower stalks contain proteins, starch and
soluble sugars (sucrose, glucose and fructose), the content of
which varies considerably during the year depending on
growth stage of the plant. Since the sugar content in the
flower stalks is not high, the juice could be mixed with other
sugar or starch containing biomass (e.g. waste fruit and
potatoes or tubers of Asphodelus aestivus [8]), so as to
increase the production volumes of ethanol in a commercial
application.