Peningkatan Produksi Gula Pereduksi dari Tandan Kosong Kelapa Sawit dengan Praperlakuan Asam Organik pada Reaktor Bertekanan

Organic acids are potential to create more environmentally friendly process in the pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass for bioethanol production. This study was aimed to investigate the influence of organic acid pretreatment in reducing sugar production in a pressurized reactor with various resident times and temperatures on enzymatic hydrolysis of OPEFB. Two different organic acids (maleic acid and oxalic acid) were used in the pretreatment of oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB) using a pressurized reactor. Factorial design using three different temperatures (170, 180, and 190°C) and four resident times (15, 30, 45, and 60 min) were employed, followed by enzymatic hydrolysis. Each condition conducted two repetitions. Analysis was conducted on the reducing sugar that was produced after saccharification by means of the severity factor of each pretreatment condition. Maleic acid showed higher reducing sugar yield with lower severity factor than oxalic acid with the same operating conditions. The highest yield of reducing sugars (80.84%) was obtained using maleic acid at 170 for 60 minutes with severity factor of 1.836. Reaktor, Vol. 16, No. 4. Hal. 199-206 ISSN 0852-0798