Abstract
Oil palm trunk (OPT) an abundant agriculture waste was evaluated as an alternative lignocellulosic biomass resource for bioethanol production. Sulfite-based SPORL pretreatment (Sulfite Pretreatment to Overcome Recalcitrance of Lignocellulose) was applied to the OPT to enhance its enzymatic saccharification. The pretreatment conditions were optimized through a designed experiment within the ranges of temperature 170–190ºC, time for 30 min, 2–6% sulfite, and initial H2SO4 concentrations 3–7% (w/w). The overall saccharides (hexoses and pentoses) recovery of SPORL pretreated was 62.5%. SPORL pretreatment removed 38.8% lignin from the OPT as lignosulfonate in the liquor with great potential for co-product development, and 93.9% xylose was dissolved, which were the main reasons why the SPORL pretreatment could enhance the enzymatic hydrolysis of the OPT. The results indicated that over 92% of the cellulose in the pretreated OPT with 7% H2SO4 and 6% Na2SO3 at 190ºC was enzymatically hydrolyzed to glucose within 48 h with a cellulase loading of 15 FPU/g cellulose, and overall glucose yield was 66%.
sulfite-pretreatment-to-overcome-recalcitrance-of-lignocellulose-for-enzymatic-hydrolysis-of-oil-palm-trunk