Effects of upgraded seawater alkaline pretreatment process for oil palm empaty bunch

Abstract

The demand for renewable fuel sources continues to grow due to diminishing supply of fossil fuel and the growing concerns about environmental. Presently, lignocellulose was reported to be the most favored and valuable compound in biofuel production. However, the presence of lignin in lignocelluloses leads to a protective barrier that prevents plant cell destruction by fungi and bacteria for conversion to fuel. Therefore, the study of pretreatment method on delignification of lignocellulosic materials has increase through the year. In this study, alkaline pretreatment of EFB is carried out at room temperature using different concentration of alkaline solution which are 5%, 10%, 15% and 20% w/v of soda ash (Na2C03) and seawater for 48 hours. The objective of this study is to investigate different concentration of alkaline in delignification of EFB. The degree of delignification is monitored based on the amount of lignin after the pretreatment by using direct spectroscopic kappa number and also be confirmed by Dubois method, FTIR and SEM analyses. The highest percentage of delignification were 70% by using concentration of 15% alkaline solution. The findings from this study are important for development of sustainable and cost effective pretreatment of lignocellulose materials