Bioethanol production process with SHF method from EFBs pulp and its microcrystalline

Abstract

Bioethanol is an alternative energy to reduce fossil fuels dependency as well as for industrial utilization. This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of bioethanol production from oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB) in the pulp compare to its microcrystalline OPEFB by applying Separate Hydrolysis and Fermentation (SHF) method. The process was carried out by pretreatment using alkaline for both materials and then subjective to the bleaching process by applying H₂O₂ 10% for microcrystalline OPEFB. Subsequently both pulp and its microcrystalline were subjected to enzymatic hydrolysis by cellulase 30 FPU/g to break lignocellulose chains into simple sugars. The final stage was fermentation process to convert glucose into ethanol by using Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Analysis of sugar, cellulose, and lignin content was performed by using the NREL method, and for ethanol content using a densitometer. This study revealed that the sugar conversion after hydrolysis by enzymes was 79.77% for microcrystalline and 66.76% for pulp. Meanwhile, the ethanol content in the microcrystalline was higher than the ethanol in the pulp that was 4.87% in the medium of 0.1% NPK and 0.3% urea.