Potential of oil palm frond liquid extract and fiber as feedstock for bio-butanol production

Abstract

Oil palm frond is the most abundant yet untapped biomass in Malaysia. The objectives of the present work are to study the influence of the age of oil palms on productive sugar yield from oil palm frond extracts and to highlight the potential OPF liquid extract and fibers as feedstock for biobutanol production. Oil palm tree age between 5-10, 10-15 and 15-25 years were sampled for the study. The analysis was conducted using DNS method. The findings indicated that OPF petiole with the age limit of 15- 25years gives higher glucose concentration of 40.50g/L as compared with 17.85g/L of 5-10 years. Furthermore, the percentage carbon content of 41.04% and 37.45% obtained from the elemental analysis conducted using various micro elemental analyzers, indicated the suitability of OPF as a promising feedstock for biobutanol production.