Extraction of Xylose from Rice Straw and Lemongrass Leaf via Microwave Assisted

Abstract

In recent years, agricultural wastes cause serious pollution to the environment. Agricultural residues can be used to produce value-added products in order to control environmental pollution, therefore these wastes are a promising feedstock as it has many advantages such as wide range of source, low cost and renewable. Rice straw and lemongrass leaves which are the renewable sources for the production of many useful products such as xylose. The aim of this study is to compare the content of xylose produced from rice straw and lemongrass leaves, in order to obtain highest yield of xylose and to optimize the acid hydrolysis time, concentration of sulphuric acid, liquid-solid ratio and the power of the microwave towards the maximum extraction of xylose. Microwave assisted acidic hydrolysis method was used to extract xylose from rice straw and lemongrass leaves. The acid hydrolysis of both rice straw and lemongrass was performed at different time (1-5 minutes), acid concentration (1%-5%), liquid solid ratio (1:30, 2:30, 3:30, 4:30 and 5:30) and power (160W, 320W, 480W, 640W, 800W). The results obtained indicate that the yield of xylose from rice straw (2.98g/L) via the microwave assisted is slightly higher than lemongrass (2.91 g/L) with optimum conditions of 3 minutes of hydrolysis time, 2% of sulphuric acid concentration, 1:30 of liquid solid ratio and 320W of microwave power. Meanwhile, the optimum conditions for lemongrass leaves are 4 minutes of hydrolysis time, 4% of sulphuric acid concentration, 2:30 of liquid solid ratio and 480W of microwave power. Thus, rice straw has slightly higher capability in production of xylose compared to lemongrass.