earticle

영어

Malaysia is one of the top producers of palm oil in the world and at present, the total area under oil palm cultivation is about 4.05 million hectares, with the total palm oil production of 16.8 million tonnes. Lignocellulosic biomass offers an inexpensive and abundant source of renewable resources. The biomass was made up of 53% empty fruit bunch (EFB), 32% mesocarp, and 15% fiber and palm kernel shell. It is believed that this will continuously increase in proportion to the
world demand of edible oils. In the past, with the high content of nutrients, the EFB are burnt to produce ash, which is later used as fertilizer. However, the burning of EFB has been stopped due to the environment issue and nowadays most EFB are recycled and applied as mulch in the field. This paper will discuss on the utilization of lignocellulosic materials that contained a complex structure of lignin. Removal of lignin was important in order for enzymatic hydrolysis to
occur as it acts as a barrier to most of agricultural wastes. Producing commercial products through fermentation of lignocellulosic material is a multi-step process involving pre-treatment and hydrolysis of the material with acid to release fermentable simple sugars, fermentation
of these sugars by living organisms to produce hydrocarbons, recovery from the fermentation broth of the desired products, and utilization of the by-products.