Enzymatic hydrolysis of alkaline pretreated coconut coir

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to study the effect of concentration and temperature on the cellulose and lignin content, as well as the reducing sugars produced in the enzymatic hydrolysis of coconut coir. In this research, the coconut coir is pretreated using 3%, 7%, and 11% NaOH solution at 60 °C, 80 °C, and 100 °C. The pretreated coir were assayed by measuring the amount of cellulose and lignin and then hydrolysed using Celluclast and Novozyme 188 under various temperature (30 °C, 40 °C, 50 °C) and pH (3, 4, 5). The hy-drolysis results were assayed for the reducing sugar content. The results showed that the alkaline delignifi-cation was effective to reduce lignin and to increase the cellulose content of the coir. The best delignification condition was observed at 11% NaOH solution and 100 °C which removed 14.53% of lignin and increased the cellulose content up to 50.23%. © 2013 BCREC UNDIP.