Microwave assisted aqueous ammonia pretreatment of oil palm empty fruit bunch: effect on lignin removal and morphological structure. (September 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Perdana Harahap, Andre Fahriz; Aditya Rahman, Azhar; Gozan, Misri
• Is Part Of: Journal of physics. Volume 1311(2019)
• Publication Date: 2019-09
• Subjects: Physics -- Congresses; 530.5
• DOI: 10.1088/1742-6596/1311/1/012027
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1742-6588

Abstract

Abstract: Oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB) is an abundant solid waste produced by oil palm industries to which the cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin content has potential for conversion into high value biochemical products. However, pretreatment must be applied to remove lignin thus making cellulose and hemicellulose available for further conversion. In this study, effect of three parameters of microwave assisted aqueous ammonia pretreatment such as microwave power (280; 560; 840 Watt), NH3 concentration (7.5; 10; 12.5 % w/v), and reaction time (3; 6; 9 minutes) on lignin removal (%) were evaluated by using response surface methodology with Box-Behnken design. OPEFB at different size ranging from 30 – 40 mesh was used as the raw material. Moreover, to evaluate the morphological structure, scanning electron microscope (SEM) analysis was employed both on untreated and pretreated OPEFB. The quadratic model showed that microwave power of 837.8 Watt, NH3 concentration of 12.2% (w/v), and reaction time of 8.9 minutes resulted the highest lignin removal of 81.60%. SEM images showed that pretreated OPEFB encountered a heavy structural destruction. These results show that microwave assisted aqueous ammonia pretreatment can be a promising method to be applied to disrupt the compact lignocellulose structure of OPEFB and to remove its lignin content efficiently under very short period of time.