Shuhaida Harun

Effects of changes in chemical and structural characteristic of ammonia fibre expansion (AFEX) pretreated oil palm empty fruit bunch fibre on enzymatic saccharification and fermentability for biohydrogen

Oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB) fibre is widely available in Southeast Asian countries and found to have 60% (w/w) sugar components. OPEFB was pretreated using the ammonia fibre expansion (AFEX) method and characterised physically by the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. The results show that there were significant structural changes in OPEFB after the pretreatment step, and the sugar yield after enzymatic hydrolysis using a cocktail of Cellic Ctec2® and Cellic Htec2® increased from 0.15gg(-1) of OPEFB in the raw untreated OPEFB sample to 0.53gg(-1) of OPEFB in AFEX-pretreated OPEFB (i.e. almost a fourfold increase in sugar conversion), which enhances the economic value of OPEFB. A biohydrogen fermentability test of this hydrolysate was carried out using a locally isolated bacterium, Enterobacter sp. KBH6958. The biohydrogen yield after 72h of fermentation was 1.68mol H2 per mol sugar. Butyrate, ethanol, and acetate were the major metabolites.

Biotechnological route for sustainable succinate production utilizing oil palm frond and kenaf as potential carbon sources

Due to the world’s dwindling energy supplies, greater thrust has been placed on the utilization of renewable resources for global succinate production. Exploration of such biotechnological route could be seen as an act of counterbalance to the continued fossil fuel dominance. Malaysia being a tropical country stands out among many other nations for its plenty of resources in the form of lignocellulosic biomass. To date, oil palm frond (OPF) contributes to the largest fraction of agricultural residues in Malaysia, while kenaf, a newly introduced fiber crop with relatively high growth rate, holds great potential for developing sustainable succinate production, apart from OPF. Utilization of non-food, inexhaustible, and low-cost derived biomass in the form of OPF and kenaf for bio-based succinate production remains largely untapped. Owing to the richness of carbohydrates in OPF and kenaf, bio-succinate commercialization using these sources appears as an attractive proposition for future sustainable developments. The aim of this paper was to review some research efforts in developing a biorefinery system based on OPF and kenaf as processing inputs. It presents the importance of the current progress in bio-succinate commercialization, in addition to describing the potential use of different succinate production hosts and various pretreatments–saccharifications under development for OPF and kenaf. Evaluations on the feasibility of OPF and kenaf as fermentation substrates are also discussed.

Kesan kaedah prarawatan berbeza terhadap tandan kosong kelapa sawit bagi penghasilan glukosa ringkas

In this study, a pretreatment of empty fruit bunch (EFB) using supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO2), acid and alkaline were investigated for glucose yield from enzymatic hydrolysis. The chemical composition, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) analysis of EFB before and after pretreatment were determined. From this study, the chemical composition of EFB (% g/g dry biomass) before pretreatment for cellulose, hemicellulose and Klason lignin were recorded as 36.7%, 22.8%, and 24.2%, respectively. After pretreatment, the highest cellulose composition was obtained from EFB treated with alkaline followed by acid and SC-CO2 which gave the results of 48.5%, 47.7% and 38% respectively. The glucose yield after enzymatic hydrolysis for untreated EFB was 17% (w/w). After pretreatment, the glucose yield increased to 84.4%, 34% and 24% for alkaline, acid and SC-CO2 of the treated EFB, respectively. Other than that, XRD analysis showed increase in the crystallinity index after each pretreatment. Morphology analysis showed the surface of the treated EFB looked swollen and ruptured as compared with the surface of the untreated EFB. Between the three pretreatments, alkaline pretreatment gives the highest cellulose composition and glucose yield. Thus, it shows that alkaline pretreatment was the best pretreatment method on EFB compared to acid and SC-CO2 pretreatments.

Use of corn steep liquor as an economical nitrogen source for biosuccinic acid production by Actinobacillus succinogenes

Expensive raw materials are the driving force that leads to the shifting of the petroleum-based succinic acid production into bio-based succinic acid production by microorganisms. Cost of fermentation medium is among the main factors contributing to the total production cost of bio-succinic acid. After carbon source, nitrogen source is the second largest component of the fermentation medium, the cost of which has been overlooked for the past years. The current study aimed at replacing yeast extract- a costly nitrogen source with corn steep liquor for economical production of bio-succinic acid by Actinobacillus succinogenes 130Z. In this study, a final succinic acid concentration of 20.6 g/L was obtained from the use of corn steep liquor as the nitrogen source, which was comparable with the use of yeast extract as the nitrogen source that had a final succinate concentration of 21.4 g/l. In terms of economical wise, corn steep liquor was priced at

Pencirian kimia dan fizikal bagi tandan kosong buah kelapa sawit

200 /ton, which was one fifth of the cost of yeast extract at

Programme outcomes year III student through integrated project and open ended laboratory

1000 /ton. Therefore, corn steep liquor can be considered as a potential nitrogen source in biochemical industries instead of the costly yeast extract.

Performance of AFEX™ pretreated rice straw as source of fermentable sugars: the influence of particle size

The interest in Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunch (OPEFB) as a promising feedstock for bioconversion into value added products is growing fast, thus a thorough analysis of its component becomes necessary. In this study, the biomass chemical composition and physical feature of OPEFB was analysed to explore and understand the potential of OPEFB as bioconversion feedstock. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) standard protocols were used to characterize and determine the chemical composition of OPEFB. Through this protocol, the structural and non-structural constituents and their compositions were determined based on unextracted and extracted native OPEFB. Structural constituents include the carbohydrate, such as the glucan, xylan and arabinan, and lignin accounted for 31.2%, 18.7%, 2.7%, and 27.7%, while the non-structural constituents mainly refer to ash and extractives accounted for 0.10% and 11.87%. In addition, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) analysis were also used to further characterize the chemical structure of OPEFB. The FTIR spectral peaks representing the functional groups cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin were observed. Through XRD analysis, the crystallinity index of native OPEFB fiber was calculated around 40%, while it was 37% for the powder form OPEFB. Nevertheless, the physical feature or surface morphology of the OPEFB fiber has been study by using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). It shows a rigid strand’s surface and the presence of silica bodies which commonly found in woody plant.

Enhancement of batch biohydrogen production from prehydrolysate of acid treated oil palm empty fruit bunch

In the Outcome Based Education curriculum, a student is expected to achieve the Programme Outcomes, (PO) upon graduation and the achievement of the programme outcomes have to be assessed through designated measurement methods. These POs were determined by the departmental review committee for the Outcome Based Education (OBE) and curriculum as well as feedbacks from various stakeholders (i.e. employers, alumni, parents etc.). In July 2012, Engineering Accreditation council, EAC has come out with new changes in their manual and dramatic change has been introduced on programme outcomes. Due to these changes, the department has taken proactive steps in efforts to fulfill the requirements of new 12 Pos. In an effort to assess the PO achievements, a few means were employed to collect data qualitatively and quantitatively. Among the steps taken are: Employer evaluation during industrial training, Alumni Survey, Exit Survey, Integrated project (IP), Open Ended Laboratory (OEL), Final Year Design Project, Final Year Research Project and formative assessment on course outcomes (before and after). In this paper, the assessments of PO Year III student through IP and OEL are elaborate in detail. The PO measure in IP are PO1 until PO11 excluding PO4 and PO12 whereas for OEL measure PO1, PO2, PO3, PO4, PO9, PO10 and PO11. Marks ≥ 50% obtained is an indicator of achievement of the PO obtained from Integrated Project and Open Ended Laboratory. The result shows that achievement of PO was at 50% and above for all measured POs.