Valorization of Biomass Waste to Produce Bioethanol

There are various methods that can be implemented to produce biofuel specifically bioethanol. The bioethanol can be produced from cellulose and hemicelluloses that may be originate from various sources of biomass such as Empty Fruit Bunches (EFB), mesocarp fiber, shell and palm kernel cakes. The studies and research works were focused on the production of bioethanol from oil palm waste, EFB using bacteria, Saccharomyces Cerevisiae ATCC 96581 as fermentation aid to expand the usage of oil palm waste and to enhance the production of bioethanol. The purposes of this study are to investigate the effect of FPU loading, pH value and temperatures by using celluloses. Besides, this study also aimed to produce bioethanol from EFB by using Simultaneous Saccharification and Fermentation (SSF) method. Prior fermentation process, enzymatic saccharifications of EFB need to be done to investigate the highest amount of monomeric sugars; glucose and fructose produced from EFB aided by enzyme, Trichoderma Reesei. Three sets of experiment were performed; in first set, the sample was hydrolyzed with pretreatment with sodium hydroxide solution then being subjected to sulfuric acid solution. Pretreatment process is necessary to remove lignin from the EFB that could hinder the saccharification of EFB to produce sugars and bioethanol. At the second set of the experiment, the fermentation process which is SSF method was performed aided with Saccharomyces Cerevisiae under anaerobic conditions. The result has shown that bioethanol has been produced from the process and the highest amount of bioethanol produced was 0.42 mg/ml at 58 hours. Final sets of experiment were performing to examine the effect of mass loading, pH value and also FPU loading of the celluloses in producing bioethanol. From optimization works of these various fermentation parameters it was found that the highest ethanol production from cellulose (Avicel Ph 101) which ranges from 3.1 mg/mL to 4.6 mg/mL can be achieved at pH 4, 217 FPU, 5.0g of cellulose loading with an agitation rate of 100 rpm for 60 hours incubation.