Optimization of Palm Frond Pulping Using a Soda-Anthraquinone Process in a Circulating Digester: A Sustainable Approach

Evaluation of the effect of temperature, NaOH concentration and time on solubilization of palm oil mill effluent (POME) using response surface methodology (RSM)

Oil palm frond (OPF) is a new non-conventional fibrous feed for ruminants. Evaluation on the nutritive values and digestibility of OPF was carried out using goats. In a completely randomised design, 20 local male goats were assigned to evaluate fresh and different types of processed OPF. A 60 day feeding trial was done to determine the digestible nutrient intake of fresh, ensiled and pelleted OPF and its response on live weight gain of goat. The pelleting of OPF increased (p<0.05) intake compared to fresh or ensiled OPF. The OPF based mixed pellet (50% OPF with 15% palm kernel cake, 6% rice bran, 6% soybean hull, 15% molasses, 2% fishmeal, 4% urea, 1.5% mineral mixture and 0.5% common salt) increased (p<0.05) nutrient intake, digestibility and reduced feed refusals. The mixed pellet also increased digestible dry matter intake (DDMI) and digestible organic matter intake (DOMI) at 80% and 63% level respectively than the fresh OPF. The increased digestible nutrient intake on the OPF based mixed pellet, resulted in increased live weight gain of goats. Furthermore, OPF has a good potential as a roughage source when it is used with concentrate supplement. OPF based formulated feed in a pelleted form could be used as a complete feed for intensive production of goat and other ruminants.

Pleurotus ostreatus (oyster mushroom) is cultivated in Malaysia using rubber tree sawdust (RS). Due to a shortage and the increasing cost of rubber tree sawdust, an alternative substrate is needed. This study was undertaken to evaluate the feasibility of oil palm frond (OPF) as an alternative substrate for the cultivation of Pleurotus ostreatus. The OPF and RS were analysed for their elemental compositions. The mycelium growth rate, the time for first pinhead formation and first fruiting bodies, yield, and biological efficiency (BE%) were studied for 100 % OPF, 90 % OPF - 10 % RS, 70 % OPF - 30 % RS, 50 %OPF - 50 % RS, 30 % OPF - 70 % RS, 10 % OPF - 90 % RS and 0 % OPF - 100 % RS substrates supplemented with rice bran and calcium carbonate. The proximate nutritional value of Pleurotus ostreatus first flush was also analysed for 100 % RS and 100% OPF. For mycelium growth rate, time for first pinhead formation and time to first Pleurotus ostreatus crop, the 0% OPF - 100 % RS substrate recorded the shortest time followed by the 10% OPF -90 % RS substrate. The 0 % OPF - 100 % RS substrate gave the highest yield of 135 g (22.6 % BE) whereas 125 g (20.9 % BE) was obtained from the 30 % OPF - 70 % RS substrate. The first flush of Pleurotus ostreatus harvested from the 100 % OPF substrate was richer in protein but lower in fat and carbohydrate compared to the mushrooms from the 100 % RS substrate making it an excellent food for low caloric diet, but OPF alone is not suitable as an alternative substrate for the cultivation of Pleurotus ostreatus as it took a longer growth performance with a lower yield of fruiting bodies compared to RS substrate.

ABSTRACTIn this study, Box-Behnken design (BBD) and response surface methodology (RSM) was applied to study the effects of alkaline peroxide treatment variables (cooking time, sodium hydroxide concentrations, and hydrogen peroxide concentrations) on the pulp and paper strength properties (screened pulp yield, kappa number, tensile index, tear index, burst index), which are considered dependent variables or response variable of the extracted cellulose from oil palm (Elaeisguineensis) fronds (OPF) vascular bundle fibers. The results indicated that at the optimum operating conditions of 2.35% NaOH, 5.00% H2O2 and a 53.41 min cooking time, resulting maximum strength properties (tensile index, burst index, tear index,) gave 9.92 Nm/g, 6.55 KPam2/g, 6.22 mNm2/g, respectively. The study revealed that alkaline peroxide pulped fibers of oil palm frond vascular bundles could be considered a suitable alternative for paper qualities with moderate strength requirements.

Two experiments were undertaken using lambs and cows fed steam-treated oil palm frond (SOPF). In the first experiment, 8 lambs received SOPF supplemented with 4 levels of urea: 0 (U0), 8 (U8), 16 (U16) and 24 g urea/kg SOPF (U24) in a replicated 4 x 4 Latin square design. When the lambs were given the above diets, all the measurements for intake and digestibility (dry matter, organic matter and nitrogen) increased in a linear (P < 0.001) manner up to the level of U16, except for intake of nitrogen (N); no further benefits were obtained when more urea was added. Giving 16 g urea per kg could provide sufficient fermentable N for SOPF utilization. Three ruminally cannulated non lactating cross-bred Charolais x Kedah-Kelantan cattle were used in the second experiment to determine the effective degradability of N from cassava foliage (CF), cassava leaves (CL) and soybean meal (SM) suspended in the rumen. The animals were fed with amount of dry matter (DM) that was equivalent to 1.5% of body weight of SOPF supplemented with 16 g of urea per kg. The effective degradability of N from CF, CL and SM was calculated from their residues after incubation in the rumen for 2, 4, 8, 16 and 24 h. Increasing the rate of outflow of particulate matter (from 2, 5 to 8%/ h) from the rumen, resulted in a greater disappearance of N (P < 0.05) from CF than from CL or SM. Because of its relative faster rate of degradation, CF in addition to the provision of fermentable N may also contribute easily degradable cellulose and hemicellulose to SOPF-based diets. The nylon bag technique appeared to be a powerful tool for screening protein supplements. Key words: Degradability, nitrogen, oil palm frond, ruminant, steam treatment, supplementation.

Bioethanol and biogas production from oil palm trunk (OPT) and oil palm frond (OPF) investigated within a biorefinery concept. Firstly, bioethanol production from OPT and OPF pretreated two-stage steam explosion by comparing with enzyme hydrolysis and without enzyme hydrolysis in the SSF process, which used S. cerevisiae in fermentation. The amount of bioethanol increased rapidly, which was stable when the fermentation process entered 96 hrs, resulting in the highest amount of bioethanol produced from OPF and OPT equal to 0.31 and 0.40 g ethanol/g glucose of bioethanol yield, which was about 24.96% and 25.99% higher than the non-enzymatic fermentation of OPF and OPT. The total stillage from OPT and OPF distillation produced a methane yield of 164.38 ml/CH4 g COD at 30 days of HRT and an organic loading rate (OLR) of 12.45 g COD/L-day. Biofuels in the biorefinery concept of OPF/OPT material at 1,000 kg produced bioethanol, biogas, and solid residue as 49 L at 95% bioethanol, 7,116 L at 63.05% of methane composition, and 13 kilograms of solid residue.

Sono-assisted organosolv/H2O2 pretreatment of oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) fronds for recovery of fermentable sugars: Optimization and severity evaluation

Nitrate adsorption towards ultrasound-assisted modified oil palm frond: Characterization and performance investigation using response surface methodology

Plant nutrient management, especially organic materials is one of the interesting topics to be studied more deeply in rubber tree plantation. The price of rubber tends to decrease every year. It encourages the planters to utilize organic materials as fertilizer substitute agent. Organic materials have a function to improve the physical, chemical, and biological characteristic of soil. Organic materials, besides from the plantation (in situ) such as weeds, cover crops, and twigs, but it’s also be sourced from outside the plantation (e x situ) such as compost from oil palm industry. Litter poten cy from legume cover crop of Mucuna bracteata (Mb) in immature rubber plant area as soil organic material is big enough that is 2–7 ton/ha/year or 2,5-7 times higher than conventional cover crop. Furthermore, poten cy of nutrient returns to soil from Mb biomass amount 250,98 kg/ha N; 9,08 kg/ha P 2 O 5 ; 72,5 kg/ha K 2 O; and 11,95 kg/ha MgO. The existence of cover crop in immature rubber plant interrows also affect to uniformity of rubber plant, the number of mature rubber, and bark thickness better than conventional cover crop. Waste of oil palm industry such as empty fruit bunches and oil p a lm frond (OPF) also very potential to be used as organic material source to rubber plant. The number of rubber fine roots which is sized < 1 mm in diameter increased up to twice compared with a rubber plant without oil palm empty fruit bunches application. CEC value, C-organic and N, P, K, Ca, Mg content were reported also increased significantly. OPF is agricultural waste that have high lignin and cellulose and with an appropriate composting management become potential to produce manure compost on day 75. In Immature rubber plant, dose of 20 ton/ha increased soil porosity and decrease d in bulk density compared plant without compost of OPF application. The treatment of 20 % compost + 80 % subsoil significantly increased the root dry weight of rubber plant seedling and also increased pH, CEC, C-Organic, P, K, Ca, and Mg soil content. Application of organic matter in plantation can be combine d with “rorak” (small blocked ditches). This condition causes the water plant needs can be fulfilled in dry season hence fertiliz er application will be more efficient and nutrient uptake better. Keywords: Hevea brasiliensis , organic matter, nutrient , Mucuna bracteata , compost

Oil palm fronds (OPF) are an abundant lignocellulosic waste generated from the oil palm field. In this study, efficient saccharification processes of oil palm fronds (OPF) through fungi bioconversion were explored. The objective of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of Aspergillus niger (A.niger), Phanerochaete chrysosporium (P. chrysosporium) and Aspergillus terreus (A. terreus) UniMAP AA-1 in producing fermentable sugar as well as the important parameters that can affects the bioconversion process. Solid-state fermentation process was carried out with the total working volume of 20 g at 30˚C for 7 days. Throughout this study, A. terreus UniMAP AA-1 was found as the most potential microorganisms in converting cellulose into glucose compared to the other microorganisms, which were A. niger and P. chrysosporium. Optimization experiment of fermentable production from Aspergillus terreus UniMAP AA-1 was designed using Central Composite Design (CCD). CCD identified optimum condition for inoculum size, which was 4 % (w/v) and pH 8 in optimization study using Response Surface Methodology (RSM) and maximum fermentable sugar produced was 3.6732 mg/mL. The data obtained from this study may applicable for scale-up process of fermentable sugars production from OPF in the future.

Oil palm frond seems to be among the best alternative substitution fillers in thermoplastic composite (WPC) as it is abundantly available and its lignocellulosic properties offer great usability. There is still lack of preliminary studies on the basic effects of oil palm frond’s particle size and its loading in polypropylene matrix. Thus, this paper focuses on studying the mechanical and physical properties of oil palm frond–polypropylene composite in the effects of both particle size and filler loading. Composites with 10–50 % filler loading were fabricated with four different sizes from unscreen particles towards the fines which are 425, 250, and 75 µm. The findings performed a significant difference at 95 % confident level in all tested samples which are flexural MOR, flexural MOE, tensile strength, tensile modulus, elongation at break, and water absorption behavior. Largest size showed the best mechanical properties among the others, which is contradicted to previous reports on wood particle thermoplastic composite. These findings are useful as a guide throughout the future researches based on oil palm frond and polypropylene matrix.

Background/Objectives: The composition of palm oil fronds that has a potential to produce bio oil is examined and the bio oil yields produced from pyrolysis process is optimized in Response Surface Method (RSM). The chemical components found in bio oil are identified. Methods/Statistical Analysis: Lignocellulosic biomass like palm oil fronds contains 28.36% cellulose, 19.89% hemicellulose and 22.83% lignin. The high percentage of cellulose in this biomass will give higher fraction of bio oil produced. Parameters that have been investigated in this research for the optimization are reaction temperature, reaction time and flow rate of nitrogen gas. Pyrolysis process was done in the fixed bed reactor with Central Composite Design (CCD) in RSM was used for optimization of process parameters. Findings: The optimal conditions was found at reaction temperature of 500°C, reaction time of 60 min and flow rate of nitrogen gas for 2 l/min which produced highest amount of bio oil for 19.68% g of bio oil/g of biomass feed. Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis was done and shows the presence of functional group of phenol, alcohol, carboxylic acid, ketones, quinones, aldehydes, alkenes, alkanes and aromatic groups in the bio oil. Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis shows that 26 chemical components present in the bio oil. Application/Improvements: Demands for fossil fuel as a source of energy is increasing every year since industry's revolution era. With this scenario, many countries in the world started to find any possible alternative source of energy to ensure the sufficient of energy supply. Bio oil is the best alternatives to replace the source of energy supply in transportation sector.

Optimizing ethanolic hot compressed water (EHCW) cooking as a pretreatment to glucose recovery for the production of fuel ethanol from oil palm frond (OPF)

Bioprotein is an alternative source that can be used to substitute the conventional protein source. In order to produce bioprotein, agricultural wastes can be utilized by microorganisms as substrates. Therefore, in this study, the utilization of oil palm fronds (OPF) as a substrate for the production of bioprotein by Aspergillus terreus strain UniMAP AA-1 through solid-state fermentation was investigated. The objectives of this study are to evaluate the production of bioprotein developed from OPF as a substrate and to optimize the physical parameters affecting bioprotein production. Solid state fermentation was carried out in conical flasks with 20 g of working volume at 30°C for 7 days. The fermentation time which produced the highest bioprotein was recorded at day 5. After that, the effects of temperature, substrate concentration and inoculum size were screened through 2-Level factorial design. Substrate concentration and temperature for the fermentation process were further optimized using Response Surface Methodology through Central Composite Design. As a result, maximum bioprotein produced was 0.7348 mg/mL at the temperature of 34.69°C, 58.06% w/v of substrate concentration and 5% v/v inoculum size. The data obtained in this study is potentially applicable in the scale-up production of bioprotein from OPF by A. terreus strain UniMAP AA-1 in the future.

Pretreatment of lignocellulosic palm biomass using a solvent-ionic liquid [BMIM]Cl for glucose recovery: An optimisation study using response surface methodology