Comparison of acid and enzymatic hydrolysis of palm empty fruit bunch for fermentable sugar production

Palm empty fruit bunch (EFB). one of agriculture waste that in abundance in Malaysia, is suitable to be converted to bioethanol production. Two distinguished route, which are acid and enzymatic hydrolysis of EFB were compared in producing fermentable sugars, die intermediates for bioethanol production. The EFB samples were pretreated with low pressure steam heanng (LPSH) method before being hydrolyzed to fermentable sugars (glucose and xylose). In acid hydrolysis, the steam treated sample was mixed with 72% (w/w) of sulphuric acid (H2Sa> for 2 hours at room temperature and further diluted with distilled water. Subsequently, the mixture was autoclave at 121°C at 1 hour. Whereas, in enzymatic hydrolysis, the steam treated EFB was hydrolysed with cellulase enzyme in 20 % (w/w) in citrate buffer solution of pH 4.8 at temperature of 40C . A kinetic study was done to evaluate the rate of conversion for both processes. The performance of each process will be compared and discussed

Enzymatic hydrolysis of oil palm biomass for fermentable sugar using polyethylene glycol immobilized cellulase

In this work, enzymatic hydrolysis using cellulase both in solution and immobilized form was studied to convert lignocellulosic biomass from empty fruit bunch into fermentable sugars. The cellulase was covalently immobilized with activated and functionalized polyethylene glycol via glutaraldehyde coupling. To determine sample enzyme activity, the equivalent reducing sugars released during hydrolysis reaction with free cellulase and immobilized cellulase respectively, were quantified using 3,5- dinitrosalicylic acid (DNS) method. As a whole, the immobilized cellulase displayed 50% higher efficiency over free cellulase, in reducing sugar recovery during hydrolysis reactions. From the kinetic study, it showed that Michaelis constant (Km) and limiting velocity(Vm«) of immobilized cellulase were 179.2 mg/ml and 33.5mg/ml.min respectively, whereas that of free cellulase were 171.8mg/ml and 34.5mg/ml.min respectively. The higher Km value of immobilized cellulase could be attributed to the polyethylene glycol interference with the binding of cellulase to expose substrate, and enables free interaction of cellulase to hydrolyse cellulose maximally

A kinetic study of enzymatic hydrolysis of oil palm biomass for fermentable sugar using polyethylene glycol (PEG) immobilized cellulase

In this work, enzymatic hydrolysis by cellulase in a soluble and an immobilized form was studied to convert lignocellulosic oil palm empty fruit bunch (EFB) biomass into fermentable sugars as a feedstock for bioethanol production. The cellulase was covalently immobilized with activated and functionalized polyethylene glycol (PEG) via glutaraldehyde coupling method. As a whole, the immobilized cellulase displayed 50 higher efficiency over free cellulase, in reducing sugar recovery during hydrolysis reactions at pH of 4.8 and temperature of 50°C. From the kinetic study, it showed that Michaelis constant (Km) and limiting velocity (Vmax) of immobilized cellulase were 179.2 mg/ml and 33.5 mg/ml.min respectively, comparable with the value for free cellulose, 171.8 mg/ml and 34.5 mg/ml.min respectively. This result could be attributed to the effect of PEG on the binding cellulase to substrate desorb substrates, and enables free interaction of cellulase to hydrolyse cellulose maximally

The effect of conventional and microwave heating techniques on transesterification of waste cooking oil to biodiesel

This research is focused on the effect of processing parameters such as molar ratio of sample to solvent (1:3 - 1:15), catalyst loading (0.5 - 2.5 wt %), temperature (40 - 80 C) and time of reaction ( 5 - 180 min) on the transesterification yield of waste cooking oil (WCO) in conventional thermal heating and microwave heating technique s . The analysis carried out revealed that the microwave assisted transesterification produced a comparable yield to conventional heating transesterification with ~ 5 times faster in heating up the reaction mixture to a reaction temperature and reduced ~ 90% of the reaction time required . This study concludes that microwave assisted transesterification , which is a green technology, may have great potential in reducing the processing time compared to conventional thermal heating transesterification

Laundry soap production from the respective tallows of goat, sheep and cow: evaluation of physicochemical properties for the best

Tallow mainly consists of triglycerides, whose major constituents are derived from stearic, palmitic and oleic acids, and its usage reduces production cost of soap, adds lather stability and hardness to soap. Laundry soaps were produced with variation on amount of tallow (sourced from cow, sheep and goat) and labelled as A, B, C, D and E formulations. The respective tallows were characterized in terms of saponification value and acid value and determined to be 192.14 and 2.24mg KOH/g (cow tallow); 200.56 and 2.38mgKOH/g (sheep tallow) and 197.75 and 1.96 mgKOH/g (goat tallow). The physicochemical properties of soap which determine its area of usage and cleansing properties were determined. The properties considered in this work were hardness, moisture content, foam capacity, pH, free acidity content, and total fatty matter. The hardness, moisture content, foam capacity, pH, free acidity content and total fatty matter of the produced soaps were determined and ranged between mild-deep penetration level; 11-21%; 1-9cm; 8-10.5; 0.16-0.82% and 40-86% respectively. From the comparative analysis, soap made from sheep tallow has the lowest penetration level (with formulations B and E), lowest free acidity content of 0.16% (with formulation A), highest total fatty matter of 86% (using formulation E), highest foam height of 9cm (with formulation A), lowest moisture content of 11% (with formulation A) and mild alkalinity of 8 (with formulations A, B and E). These results showed that the soaps produced from sheep tallow are the best in terms of hardness, lather and skin friendliness, due to its high degree of longer carbon chain lengths of fatty acids. These values satisfy the standard limit set for good quality laundry soap by National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control and Encyclopaedia of Industrial Chemical Analysis, respectively

Pineapple peel based biocomposites for green packaging

In this research, pineapple peel fiber (PAPF) based low density polyethylene (LDPE) biocomposites for green packaging was studied. The PAPF was first being treated with alkali before compounded with LDPE. Then, the mixture was compounded using twin screw extruder and the test samples were prepared using hot press machine. The compatibility of the PAPF as biocomposites was observed through the characterization and biodegradation analysis. Melt flow index (MFI) analysis was conducted to determine the process ability of the biocomposites. As the fiber loading in the biocomposites increases, the MFI values were decreased. The amount of water absorption was increased with the increases of PAPF loading due to the higher cellulose content. The biocomposites was buried in the soil for a month for biodegradation analysis and the highest PAPF/LDPE loading biocomposites degraded the most

Teaching Portfolio

I taught Chemical Reaction Engineering (SKC 4213) for the first time in last semester. This subject is one of core subjects in Chemical Engineering Degree Program. The primary goals for this subject are that students will develop a fundamental understanding of Reaction Engineering and also develop critical and creative thinking skills. As indicated, my major responsibilities in such a role are i) to clearly explain what the goal and expectation of the course to student, ii) to deliver the factual scientific information possibly in most easiest way for student to understand, iii) to be available and diligent in responding to students’ question. These responsibilities involved revising the lecture contents, producing PowerPoint presentations or overhead slides for each lecture, preparing questions for quizzes, test or exam, devising study guides, writing and grading exams

Purification of biohydrogen from fermentation gas mixture using two-stage chemical absorption

Research on biohydrogen production via fermentation process has shown a tremendous progress for the past few years. As biohydrogen production is being established, the purification of biohydrogen should consider the process flow for future application. This paper presents an experimental study of biohydrogen purification using two-stage chemical absorption. The research work focuses on carbon dioxide (CO2) removal, which is a major unwanted fermentation gas product via activated methyldiethanolamine (MDEA) and caustic (NaOH) in two-stage chemical absorption. The experiment was conducted at low pressure of 1 bar and normal room temperature of 29 °C using a ratio of 1:1 of CO2:H2 standard gas mixture as the feed. In the first stage, 40 wt. % MDEA was activated by using piperazine (PZ) with the concentration between 2 and 10 wt. %, whereas 20 wt. % NaOH was used in the second stage. It was found that 6 wt. % of PZ was required to fully activate 40 wt. % MDEA, which resulted in 79% CO2 removal. To improve CO2 removal, a gas distributor and wire mesh packed were used to create gas bubbles at higher geometrical surface. The experimental study successfully removed 99.59% of the total CO2, producing >99 mol% hydrogen gas purity from the second stage that used 20 wt. % NaOH