Characterization of the Oil Palm Trunk as a Material for Bio-Ethanol Production

Abstract

Using vertically and radially cut samples from a 25-year-old Elaeis guineensis (oil palm) trunk, we determined levels of alcohol-benzene extract, holocellulose, lignin, hot water extract and hot water extractable glucose. The results showed that the higher and further inside the oil palm trunk the sample was located, the more hot water extract was observed, and the more hot water extractable glucose was obtained. The hot water extractable glucose, fructose and sucrose contents of the sample oil palm trunk, in the section from between 0.5 to 9.5 m of the tree's height, were estimated as 63, 13 and 11 kg, respectively. The estimated ethanol content of this oil palm trunk section was 51.5 L, and estimated ethanol production per cultivated area was 7.4 kL/ha. The ethanol yields from fermentation of the sugar liquors from oil palm wood meals using the fermentative bacterium Zymomonas mobilis were almost the same as those from a glucose solution. Thus it would appear that there was no fermentation inhibitor in oil palm wood meal. The present examination indicated that waste oil palm trunks could provide material suitable for bio-ethanol production. © 2009, The Japan Wood Research Society. All rights reserved.