Effect of Ultrasonication in Organosolv Pretreatment for Enhancement of Fermentable Sugars Recovery from Palm Oil Empty Fruit Bunches

Kiat Moon Lee; Ka Nyan Ng

Authors

Kiat Moon Lee Department of Chemical & Petroleum Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Technology and Built Environment, UCSI University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1126-9657
Ka Nyan Ng Department of Chemical & Petroleum Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Technology and Built Environment, UCSI University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Keywords:

Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunch, Organosolv Pretreatment, Ultrasonication, Acid Hydrolysis, Lignocellulosic Biomass

Abstract

Lignocellulosic biomass has been widely explored as a substrate for biofuel production. In view of the recalcitrant properties of biomass, pretreatment is essential to open up the structure so it could more accessible to hydrolytic reactant for better hydrolysis process to yield fermentable sugars. The study focused on the incorporation of ultrasonication with organosolv pretreatment of palm oil empty fruit bunches (EFB) using ethanol solvent. The results showed that ultrasound-assisted organosolv improved the recovery of reducing sugars from EFB. A maximum amount of reducing sugars 41.3 mg was recovered from EFB under sonication power and temperature of 100% and 50°C, 30% ethanol concentration for a pretreatment duration of 15 min without the presence of sodium hydroxide catalyst. It was higher compared to organosolv pretreatment without ultrasonication and with the presence of sodium hydroxide catalyst. Among the operating variable investigated, sonication power, pretreatment time and ethanol concentration were significantly affecting the pretreatment performance, but not for the pretreatment temperature and presence of catalyst.