Pre-treatment of Oil Palm Biomass for Fermentable Sugars Production

• Main Authors: Nur Fatin Athirah Ahmad Rizal, Mohamad Faizal Ibrahim, Mohd Rafein Zakaria, Suraini Abd-Aziz, Phang Lai Yee, Mohd Ali Hassan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2018-06-01
• Series: Molecules
• Subjects: lignocellulosic biomass; fermentation; pre-treatment; palm oil process flow
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/23/6/1381

Malaysia is the second largest palm oil producer in the world and this industry generates more than 80 million tonnes of biomass every year. When considering the potential of this biomass to be used as a fermentation feedstock, many studies have been conducted to develop a complete process for sugar production. One of the essential processes is the pre-treatment to modify the lignocellulosic components by altering the structural arrangement and/or removing lignin component to expose the internal structure of cellulose and hemicellulose for cellulases to digest it into sugars. Each of the pre-treatment processes that were developed has their own advantages and disadvantages, which are reviewed in this study.