EVALUATION OF OIL PALM EMPTY FRUIT BUNCH

ABSTRACTS

A great source of energy, biomass is receiving special attention as a novel raw material for the manufacturing of biobutanol. To produce biobutanol from lignocellulosic biomass, a pretreatment phase is followed by an enzymatic hydrolysis procedure to liberate sugars for butanol fermentation. This study investigated laboratory-scale acid pretreatment with H2SO4 on an empty bunch of oil palms. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory's standard laboratory analytical procedures for biomass analysis were used to evaluate the raw materials hemicellulose, cellulose, and lignin composition (NREL). After that, a Central Composite model based on the Response Surface Methodology tool (RSM) was used to optimize the pretreatment conditions, including the concentration pH (3–12), reaction time (30–90 min), and temperature (40–100 °C). In accordance with the plan, 20 samples of raw material were pretreated, followed by enzymatic hydrolysis, and the glucose yield from the entire process was calculated. Applying the methods, the ideal response for all functions was 7.76441, 77.3245, and 57.0924 minutes [the "Pred R" of 0.9604 and the "Adj R-Squared" of 0.9879].