Abstract
Oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB), an abundant source of lignocellulosic biomass waste, is rich in hemicellulose and is converted into xylose for xylitol production. The remaining cellulose-rich residue can be efficiently hydrolyzed into glucose, which serves as a substrate for bioethanol and enzymes. This process aligns with an integrated biorefinery model aimed at optimizing the utilization of OPEFB. This study optimizes a two-stage enzymatic hydrolysis fermentation for OPEFB conversion into value-added products. Using a 4% NaOH pretreatment, lignin was degraded while preserving hemicellulose and cellulose. This hydrolysis yielded 12.27 g/L of xylose and 36.86 g/L of glucose. Ethanol production, using varied fermentation media, achieved maximum concentrations of 0.043 g/L for xylitol and 21.35 g/L for ethanol, with substrate-to-product yields of 0.005 g/g and 0.374 g/g, respectively. Furthermore, enzyme production by Aspergillus niger was assessed on multiple parameters, recording a peak cellulase activity of 55.16 ± 20.24 U/mL and enzyme weight of 42.748 kDa. The OPEFB substrate yielded the highest protein content of 0.00942 ± 0.00010 mg/mL. These findings demonstrate the feasibility and efficiency of the two-stage enzymatic hydrolysis strategy in facilitating integrated biorefinery processes for efficient and sustainable OPEFB utilization.
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