Integrated production of prebiotic xylooligosaccharides and high value cellulose from oil palm biomass

Abstract

Oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB) fibre, which is the byproduct of fruits being stripped from the fresh fruit bunch in palm oil mill, was evaluated in terms of the production of xylooligosaccharides (XOs) and the solid residue was treated for cellulose recovery. Chemoenzymatic hydrolysis that consists of chemical fractionation of OPEFB fibre to isolate xylan with further enzymatic hydrolysis to XOs in a packed bed column reactor (PBCR) was performed. An immobilised xylanase of Thermomyces lanuginosus at the concentration of 8.25 fungal xylanase unit wheat/mililitre (FXUW mL−1) was employed on a PBCR to hydrolyse the xylan at 55 °C and pH 5.5. The yields of XOs are composed of xylopentaose, xylotetraose, xylotriose and xylobiose, successfully produced from the OPEFB-xylan, shown in HPLC analysis with the total production of 8,776 mg/L and the immobilised xylanase can be recycled up to six enzymatic treatment cycles. The solid residue generated from the xylan extraction was further treated with mild concentration of bleaching agents of 20% (v/v) formic acid and 5% (v/v) hydrogen peroxide at 85 °C. The Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis showed that the products obtained have the standard cellulose structure and functional group. Further analyses on the properties of the extracted cellulose in terms of crystallinity, thermal stability and morphology were conducted. The integrated process to produce XOs from OPEFB and recover cellulose from its byproduct is sustainable to extract fine chemicals from OPEFB.