Effect of Reaction Time and Cellulase Loading on Dilute Alkali Pretreatment of Sugarcane Bagasse to Produce Fermentable Sugars for Bioethanol Production

Lignocellulosic materials, which consist mainly of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin, are among the most promising renewable feedstocks for the production of bioethanol. Its production typically involves a hydrolysis-fermentation route, which has three main steps: pretreatment and hydrolysis to get fermentable sugars, fermentation to produce bioethanol and a separation process to obtain highly concentrated bioethanol. The pretreatment step has been recognized as a technological bottleneck for the cost-effective development of bioprocesses from lignocellulosic materials. In this work, we analyze the potential of dilute alkali pretreatment of sugarcane bagasse, followed by enzymatic hydrolysis for fermentable sugars production when using 1:20 ratio between substrate and 1 persen NaOH. Alkali pretreatment of sugarcane bagasse at 121 °C and reaction time of 7.5, 15, 30, 60 and 90 minutes were investigated. Furthermore, the enzymatic hydrolysis using cellulase 10 and 20 FPu/g substrate was examined. The result shows that the highest lignin loss was 74.95 persen when sugarcane bagasse was pretreated for 60 minutes. The enzymatic hydrolysis of pretreated sugarcane bagasse for 48 hours and 20 FPu/g of cellulase loading produced the highest yield of fermentable sugars of 49.11 persen. Proceeding of ASEAN Conference on Science and Technology. Hal. 177-186