Lignin recovery from alkaline hydrolysis and glycerolysis of oil palm fiber

Abstract

In the present work, two types of treatment namely alkaline hydrolysis and glycerolysis have been conducted for lignin extraction from oil palm empty fruit bunch (EFB) fiber. Lignin has been retrieved from two sequential methods, which was the klason lignin from residue and lignin from precipitation of the filtrate. Alkaline hydrolysis was performed using 10% NaOH solution at room condition. This has extracted 13.0 % lignin. On the other hand, glycerolysis was carried out using 70% glycerol catalyzed with 5% of 1 M NaOH at 60-70 °C. This has successfully extracted 16.0% lignin. The SEM micrographs exhibited some physical changes on the surface where the impurities and waxes have been removed, exposing the,lumen. Besides that, FTIR analysis was conducted on untreated EFB, treated EFB and extracted lignin. Delignification of EFB fiber was confirmed based on the intensity reduction at 1245 cm -1 that showed lignin was removed from the fiber. The presence of C=O, C=C and C=C aromatic peaks in the FTIR spectra of the dried filtrate gave an evidence on the presence of lignin.