Physicochemical Property Changes and Enzymatic Hydrolysis Enhancement of Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunches Treated With Superheated Steam

Abstract

The effect of superheated steam treatment on oil palm empty fruit bunches (OPEFB) was investigated in terms of physicochemical property changes and enzymatic hydrolysis enhancement. The experimental treatment was carried out at different temperatures (140-210°C) and durations (20-90 min). Results showed that as the superheated steam temperature and time increased, the size distribution also changed, resulting in more small particles. Analysis on the surface texture, color, and mechanical properties of the treated OPEFB also showed that significant changes resulted due to the superheated steam treatment. In support to this, Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and thermogravimetric (TG) analyses showed that solubilization and removal of the hemicelluloses component also took place. As a result of this phenomenon, higher total sugar and glucose yield was achieved once the treated OPEFB was subjected to enzymatic hydrolysis. This suggests that superheated steam treatment could enhance OPEFB structure degradation for the preparation of a suitable substrate in order to produce a higher glucose yield in the enzymatic hydrolysis process.

Influence of High-Pressure Steam Pretreatment on the Structure of Rice Husk and Enzymatic Saccharification in a Two-Step System

“…According to Wang et al (2009), the C-H bands corresponded to the aliphatic moieties of cellulose and hemicellulose. A similar observation was reported for super-heated steam pretreated OPEFB (Bahrin et al 2012). Additionally, this spectra profile was similar to that for RH reported by Johar et al (2012).…”

“…The creation of holes could have been caused by swelling, removal of silica bodies, and re-localisation and redeposition of lignin on the surface of the RH. The observation of removal of the silica bodies was previously reported for steam pretreated OPEFB (Bahrin et al 2012;Shamsudin et al 2012) and combined acid-alkali pretreated RH (Barana et al 2016). Additionally, the RH pretreated at 220 °C showed almost complete disruption, and a crack formed along the inner structure.…”

“…The increase in the pretreatment temperature led to an increase in the dissociation and reallocation of lignin from the aromatic hydrogen bonds. This was demonstrated by the increase in the sharp peak at 811 cm -1 (Bahrin et al 2012). The frequencies of the absorption bands are given in Table 2.…”

Superheated Steam Treatment of Oil Palm Mesocarp Fiber Improved the Properties of Fiber-Polypropylene Biocomposite

“…The interfacial bonding of fiber-polymer can be improved by diminishing the hemicellulose component in the fiber (Han et al 2009;Eslam et al 2011;Hosseinaei et al 2012;Kaewkuk et al 2013). Hydrothermal and steam treatments such as superheated steam (SHS) (Bahrin et al 2012;Mahmud et al 2013;Then et al 2014), hot-water extraction (Eslam et al 2011;Hosseinaei et al 2012), and steam explosion (Ando et al 2000;Han et al 2009) reduce the hemicellulose content of fiber.…”

Sodium Hydroxide-Steam Explosion Treated Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunch: Ethanol Production and Co-Fermentation with Cane Molasses

“…In addition, higher temperature removes greater amounts of lignin and hemicellulose (Ariffin et al 2008). Likewise, steam treatment at 180 C or above removes silica bodies from the OPEFB structure, increasing enzyme accessibility to the internal layers of OPEFB (Bahrin et al 2012). A combination of NaOH and steam pretreatment has an even greater effect (Ariffin et al 2008); lignin is effectively removed from OPEFB treated with NaOH and steam at 160 °C (Choi et al 2013).…”