Chemical Pre-treatment of Lignocellulosic Materials in Empty Fruit Bunch (EFB) From Palm Oil Solid Wastes for Bio-hydrogen Production

Palm oil solid waste consists of lignocellulosic materials which can be a useful product
to produce bio-hydrogen. In this research, Empty Fruit Bunch (EFB) from palm oil solid
wastes is used as a substrate. Pretreatment of lignocellulosic materials in EFB is one of
the important processes in order to obtain high yield of bio-hydrogen conversion.
Chemical pretreatment is applied here to remove lignin and break the cellulose and
hemicelluloses into small compound so that the surface area of EFB can be increased.
Four process variables that might affect the pretreatment performance which are acid
concentration, particle size, temperature, stirring or agitation speed will be investigated.
Diluted sulfuric acid treatment which will be used in this research is expected to
hydrolyze EFB with result in high yield of monomer (glucose), change the structure of
lignin and at the same time increase the surface area of biomass substrate for next
process. The concentration of glucose in the pretreated sample can by determined by
using UV/Vis Spectrophotometer. Thus, kinetic study for four effective parameters will
be discussed in this report to have the understanding of reaction that occur