Cellulosic fibers in Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunches (OPEFB) are tightly packed with lignin, hemicelluloses, small depositions of wax, and inorganic elements. In the present work, eco-friendly reagents with low concentrations of 20% (v/v) formic acid and 10% (v/v) of 30% hydrogen peroxide were employed at 85 o C for the extraction of cellulose from OPEFB. The yield of 64% (w/w) achieved was among the highest ever reported. Based on the XRD, the -cellulose content was 93.7% with a high crystallinity of 69.9%. The average diameter was 13.5 μm with structural evidence of separated fibrils as investigated by FESEM. The TEM analysis suggested that the material was crystalline and its geometry was a monoclinic structure. The FTIR spectral peaks representing wax and hemicelluloses at 1735 cm -1 and 1375 cm -1 , respectively, and lignin at 1248 cm -1 and 1037 cm -1, were not observed in the extracted OPEFB-cellulose spectra. Based on the TGA results, thermal stability at 325 o C with a single degradation curve suggests the purity of OPEFB-cellulose.
This study investigated the effects of factors namely temperature, palm oil mill effluent (POME) volume, inoculum volume, and co-substrate addition such as oil palm empty fruit bunch (EFB) and palm kernel on the anaerobic digestion process for biogas and methane production. Response surface methodology by the Box-Behnken design verified that the specific biogas production rate and methane yield were mainly affected by operating temperature and co-substrate addition. The optimal conditions for the maximum specific biogas production rate (0.0574 m 3 / kg chemical oxygen demand per day) and methane yield (25.6%) have been predicted by multiple response optimization and verified experimentally at 47.8 • C operating temperature, 50.4 mL POME volume, and 5.7 g EFB addition. The error percentage between experimental and predicted values which were around 5% for methane composition and 12% for specific biogas production rate suggests the good predictability of the model.
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