Extraction of lignin from sugarcane trash and its potency as biosurfactant

Abstract

Sugarcane trash (SCT) is an environmental concern in Indonesia. The chemical compositions of SCT can be used as benign materials, such as lignin-based biosurfactants, for improving enzymatic hydrolysis performance through the biorefinery concept, yet no one has worked on this. Therefore, the crux of this study is to evaluate lignin and lignin-based biosurfactant characteristics from two different acid-alkali extraction methods: microwave (SCT-A) and autoclave (SCT-B). Both extraction methods successfully isolated lignin with a total lignin content of 82 % and 25 % for SCT-A and 73 % and 35 % for SCT-B, respectively. Lignin was successfully processed into biosurfactant by grafting method, which was proved by ester groups in biosurfactants at 1700 cm−1 from FTIR and δC 163.9–164.4 ppm from 13C NMR. Lignin-based SCT-A can reduce water surface tension up to 50.2 mN/m from 58.8 mN/m (pure water), while the lignin-based SCT-B was 54.4 mN/m. Further studies are required to evaluate the effectiveness of lignin-based biosurfactants in enzymatic hydrolysis.