Recovery of fermentable sugars from palm oil mill effluent via enzymatic hydrolysis

Abstract

In order to enhance the recovery of fermentable sugars from palm oil mill effluent (POME), experiments were carried out to analyze the effect of different combinations of enzymes and enzymatic hydrolysis retention time on the structural carbohydrate composition of POME originated from centrifugal waste and sterilizer condensate in the mill. The optimum combination of enzymes comprising of Celluclast 1.5 L (X1), Novozyme 188 (X2) and Viscozyme-L (X3) and optimum incubation time for enzymatic hydrolysis were determined based on one-factor-at-a-time (OFAT). For hydrolysis of centrifugal waste, maximum yield of 34.3 g/L monomeric sugar concentration was achieved with ratio of enzymes at 0.33: 0.33: 0.33 (X1:X2:X3), at enzyme loading of 3%, pH 4.8, and 48 hours of incubation at 50 ºC. For sterilizer condensate, maximum yield of 6.5 g/L monomeric sugar concentration was achieved with ratio of enzymes at 0.42: 0.33: 0.25 (X1:X2:X3) under similar processing condition.