Ria Millati

Structural Changes of Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunch (OPEFB) after Fungal and Phosphoric Acid Pretreatment

Oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB) was pretreated using white-rot fungus Pleurotus floridanus, phosphoric acid or their combination, and the results were evaluated based on the biomass components, and its structural and morphological changes. The carbohydrate losses after fungal, phosphoric acid, and fungal followed by phosphoric acid pretreatments were 7.89%, 35.65%, and 33.77%, respectively. The pretreatments changed the hydrogen bonds of cellulose and linkages between lignin and carbohydrate, which is associated with crystallinity of cellulose of OPEFB. Lateral Order Index (LOI) of OPEFB with no pretreatment, with fungal, phosphoric acid, and fungal followed by phosphoric acid pretreatments were 2.77, 1.42, 0.67, and 0.60, respectively. Phosphoric acid pretreatment showed morphological changes of OPEFB, indicated by the damage of fibre structure into smaller particle size. The fungal-, phosphoric acid-, and fungal followed by phosphoric acid pretreatments have improved the digestibility of OPEFB’s cellulose by 4, 6.3, and 7.4 folds, respectively.

Improvement of Biogas Production from Orange Peel Waste by Leaching of Limonene

Limonene is present in orange peel wastes and is known as an antimicrobial agent, which impedes biogas production when digesting the peels. In this work, pretreatment of the peels to remove limonene under mild condition was proposed by leaching of limonene using hexane as solvent. The pretreatments were carried out with homogenized or chopped orange peel at 20–40°C with orange peel waste and hexane ratio (w/v) ranging from 1 : 2 to 1 : 12 for 10 to 300 min. The pretreated peels were then digested in batch reactors for 33 days. The highest biogas production was achieved by treating chopped orange peel waste and hexane ratio of 12 : 1 at 20°C for 10 min corresponding to more than threefold increase of biogas production from 0.061 to 0.217 m3 methane/kg VS. The solvent recovery was 90% using vacuum filtration and needs further separation using evaporation. The hexane residue in the peel had a negative impact on biogas production as shown by 28.6% reduction of methane and lower methane production of pretreated orange peel waste in semicontinuous digestion system compared to that of untreated peel.

Pretreatment of oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB) by N-methylmorpholine-N-oxide (NMMO) for biogas production: structural changes and digestion improvement.

Pretreatment of OPEFB (oil palm empty fruit bunch) by NMMO (N-methylmorpholine-N-oxide) on its subsequent digestions was investigated. The pretreatments were carried out at 90 and 120 °C for 1, 3, and 5h in three different modes of dissolution (by 85% NMMO solution), ballooning (79% NMMO solution), and swelling (73% NMMO solution). The total solid recovery after the pretreatment was 89-94%. The pretreatment process did not have a major impact on the composition of OPEFB, other than a reduction of ash from 5.4% up to 1.3%. The best improvement in biogas production was achieved by a dissolution mode pretreatment of OPEFB, using conditions of 85% NMMO, 3h, and 120 °C. It resulted in 0.408 Nm(3)/kg VS methane yield and 0.032 Nm(3)CH(4)/kg VS/day initial methane production rate, which correspond in improving by 48% and 167% compared to the untreated OPEFB, respectively.

Inhibitory effects of fruit flavors on methane production during anaerobic digestion

In order to improve biogas production from fruit wastes, the inhibitory effects of fruit flavors on anaerobic digestion were investigated. Batch anaerobic digestion was performed for 30 days using synthetic medium and thermophilic sludge. Three groups of flavor compounds i.e. aldehydes (hexanal, nonanal, and E-2-hexenal), terpenes (car-3-ene, α-pinene, and myrcene), and alcohol (octanol) at concentration of 0.005%, 0.05%, and 0.5% were examined. All the flavor compounds showed inhibitory effect on methane production. The highest methane reduction was obtained at addition of 0.5% of flavor compounds. For terpenoids, the presence of 0.5% of car-3-ene, myrcene, and α-pinene reduced 95%, 75%, and 77% of methane production, respectively. For aldehydes, addition of 0.5% concentration resulted in more than 99% methane reduction for hexanal and E-2-hexenal, and 84% methane reduction for nonanal. For alcohol, the presence of 0.5% octanol decreased 99% methane production.

Biogas Production from Citrus Waste by Membrane Bioreactor

Rapid acidification and inhibition by d-limonene are major challenges of biogas production from citrus waste. As limonene is a hydrophobic chemical, this challenge was encountered using hydrophilic polyvinylidine difluoride (PVDF) membranes in a biogas reactor. The more sensitive methane-producing archaea were encapsulated in the membranes, while freely suspended digesting bacteria were present in the culture as well. In this membrane bioreactor (MBR), the free digesting bacteria digested the citrus wastes and produced soluble compounds, which could pass through the membrane and converted to biogas by the encapsulated cell. As a control experiment, similar digestions were carried out in bioreactors containing the identical amount of just free cells. The experiments were carried out in thermophilic conditions at 55 °C, and hydraulic retention time of 30 days. The organic loading rate (OLR) was started with 0.3 kg VS/m3/day and gradually increased to 3 kg VS/m3/day. The results show that at the highest OLR, MBR was successful to produce methane at 0.33 Nm3/kg VS, while the traditional free cell reactor reduced its methane production to 0.05 Nm3/kg VS. Approximately 73% of the theoretical methane yield was achieved using the membrane bioreactor.

Performance of semi-continuous membrane bioreactor in biogas production from toxic feedstock containing d-Limonene

A novel membrane bioreactor configuration containing both free and encased cells in a single reactor was proposed in this work. The reactor consisted of 120g/L of free cells and 120g/L of encased cells in a polyvinylidene fluoride membrane. Microcrystalline cellulose (Avicel) and d-Limonene were used as the models of substrate and inhibitor for biogas production, respectively. Different concentrations of d-Limonene i.e., 1, 5, and 10g/L were tested, and an experiment without the addition of d-Limonene was prepared as control. The digestion was performed in a semi-continuous thermophilic reactor for 75 days. The result showed that daily methane production in the reactor with the addition of 1g/L d-Limonene was similar to that of control. A lag phase was observed in the presence of 5g/L d-Limonene; however, after 10 days, the methane production increased and reached a similar production to that of the control after 15 days.

Inhibitory Effect of Long-Chain Fatty Acids on Biogas Production and the Protective Effect of Membrane Bioreactor.

Anaerobic digestion of lipid-containing wastes for biogas production is often hampered by the inhibitory effect of long-chain fatty acids (LCFAs). In this study, the inhibitory effects of LCFAs (palmitic, stearic, and oleic acid) on biogas production as well as the protective effect of a membrane bioreactor (MBR) against LCFAs were examined in thermophilic batch digesters. The results showed that palmitic and oleic acid with concentrations of 3.0 and 4.5 g/L resulted in >50% inhibition on the biogas production, while stearic acid had an even stronger inhibitory effect. The encased cells in the MBR system were able to perform better in the presence of LCFAs. This system exhibited a significantly lower percentage of inhibition than the free cell system, not reaching over 50% at any LCFA concentration tested.

Erratum to “Inhibitory Effect of Long-Chain Fatty Acids on Biogas Production and the Protective Effect of Membrane Bioreactor”

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1155/2016/7263974.].

Ethanol production from alkali-pretreated oil palm empty fruit bunch by simultaneous saccharification and fermentation with mucor indicus

ABSTRACT Oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB) is a potential raw material for production of lignocellulosic bioethanol. The OPEFB was pretreated with 8% sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solution at 100°C for 10 to 90 min. Enzymatic digestion was carried out using cellulase and β-glucosidase at 45°C for 24 h. It was then inoculated with Mucor indicus spores suspension and fermented under anaerobic conditions at 37°C for 96 h. Sodium hydroxide pretreatment effectively removed 51–57% of lignin in the OPEFB and also its hemicellulose (40–84%). The highest glucan digestibility (0.75 g/g theoretical glucose) was achieved in 40-min NaOH pretreatment. Fermentation by M. indicus resulted in 68.4% of the theoretical ethanol yield, while glycerol (16.2–83.2 mg/g), succinic acid (0–0.4 mg/g), and acetic acid (0–0.9 mg/g) were its by-products. According to these results, 11.75 million tons of dry OPEFB in Indonesia can be converted into 1.5 billion liters of ethanol per year.

Pretreatment of Lignocelluloses With Solvent N-Methylmorpholine N-oxide

Abstract Three decades after N-methylmorpholine N-oxide (NMMO) was first introduced as a solvent for direct cellulose dissolution, the usage of NMMO in the fiber-making industry has flourished throughout the world. This success attracts the attention of researchers working in lignocellulosic biomass fractionation to use NMMO as an agent for lignocellulosic pretreatment in biofuel production. The present chapter presents the current status of NMMO for the pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass for further fermentation to biofuels.