Chemical and Structural Changes of Ozonated Empty Fruit Bunch (EFB) in a Ribbon-Mixer Reactor

Abstract

Agricultural wastes especially empty fruit bunch (EFB) are abundantly available to be utilized as a feedstock for biochemical synthesis or biofuel production. The components of the waste include lignin, hemicellulose and cellulose. Cellulose, the polymer of glucose, is the active component for producing bio-based chemicals. However, it is difficult to isolate cellulose since lignin, the most outer layer in the waste is recalcitrant. Therefore, the agricultural wastes need to be pre-treated prior to downstream processing. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of ozone pretreatment on lignin degradation and total reducing sugar (TRS) yield. EFB was pre-treated using ozone gas in a ribbon-mixer reactor. The chemical and structural changes of ozonated EFB were analysed. The highest delignification obtained were 95.7 wt.% and TRS yield was enhanced to 84.9% at a moisture content of 40 wt.% with 60 g/m3 ozone concentration within one hour of reaction time. Both NMR and FTIR spectra conferred major peaks inferring higher lignin degradation could be achieved using ozonolysis. Copyright © 2021 by Authors, Published by BCREC Group. This is an open access article under the CC BY-SA License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0).

The Effects of Ozonolysis on Oil Palm Fruit Mesocarp Delignification

“…The ozone treatment breaks down the lignin, which is the most outermost layer of the biomass, allowing for better access to the cellulose and hemicellulose components. This increased accessibility enhances the adsorption process by providing a more porous and reactive surface for the adsorbate to bind to (Suhada et al, 2021;Valdés et al, 2002).…”