High ethanol production from oil palm empty fruit bunch pretreated by hot-compressed water technique

In the present work, oil palm empty fruit bunch (EFB) was subjected to hot-compressed water (HCW) pretreatment in order to breakdown the structure and eliminate hemicellulose and partial lignin from the material. The aim of this work was to study the ethanol production from pretreated EFB using two different processes; Separate hydrolysis and fermentation (SHF) and Simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) by Saccharomyces cerevisiae TISTR 5606. Pretreatment process of EFB using hot-compressed water (HCW) treatment was conducted at the temperature of 200°C at 30 bars for 15 min. Effect of different temperatures (30 and 35°C) and enzyme loadings (100 and 300 FPU/g dry pretreated EFB) on hydrolysis yield and ethanol fermentation were investigated herein. High ethanol concentration (53-55 g/L ethanol) was produced from 100 g/L dry pretreated EFB corresponding to 100% theoretical yield based on cellulose content in pretreated EFB.