Oil palm frond juice and coconut water as alternative fermentation substrate for bacterial cellulose production

Abstract

Bacterial cellulose (BC) has emerged as an alternative and sustainable biomaterial due to its remarkable structural and mechanical properties, which can be used in various applications. BC is a form of biopolymer which far superior to its plants equivalent because of its high purity, high strength construction material, good mechanical strength, elasticity and high crystallinity. The research aims to produce BC using biological process synthesis of A. xylinum in oil palm frond juice (OPFJ) based medium. Oil palm frond (OPF) is Malaysia’s largest biomass produced from the oil palm plantation industry in Malaysia and contain fermentable sugar required to grow BC, glucose, sucrose and fructose. The experiment was conducted under optimum temperature 30 °C in static culture condition which were applied with different ratio of medium (Coconut water, OPFJ and distilled water). Our findings revealed that highest BC yield (4.50 g/L) was obtained in the mixture medium of OPFJ: Coconut water (60:40). FTIR analysis confirmed the pellicles as cellulosic material. FE-SEM analysis showed the ribbon network consisting of nanosize fibrils with diameter ranging from 50 to 60 nm. Overall, the work demonstrated the potential of producing high value-added polymer from OPFJ-based medium.