Preliminary study on enzymatic hydrolysis of treated oil palm (Elaeis) empty fruit bunches fibre (EFB) by using combination of cellulase and ß1-4 glucosidase

Preliminary study on enzymatic hydrolysis process using combination of cellulase and ß 1-4 glucosidase on treated oil palm empty fruit bunch fibre (EFB) was performed. Crucial trends for parameters such as pH, temperature and substrate loading influencing the enzymatic hydrolysis of the treated EFB fibre were also studied. Results revealed that a combination of both cellulase and ß 1-4 glucosidase with the ratio of 5:1 hydrolyzed more cellulose from treated EFB fibre and gave highest soluble glucose concentration up to 4 g L-1. The results indicated that as pH and temperature were increased the glucose produced also increased until pH 4.8 and 50 °C; beyond these values the reverse occurred. Glucose produced in the reaction increased with the increment in the substrate loading and maximum glucose concentration (2.7 g L-1) was achieved when 8% (wv-1) treated EFB was used as a substrate

Kinetic Behaviour of Pancreatic Lipase Inhibition by Ultrasonicated A. malaccensis and A. subintegra Leaves of Different Particle Sizes

Gallic acid and quercetin equivalent were determined in the crude extract of matured leaves Aquilaria malaccensis and Aquilaria subintegra. The leaves of both Aquilaria species were dried at 60 °C for 24 hours, ground and sieved into particle size of 250, 300, 400, 500, and 1000 µm. Then, each particle size of leaves was soaked in distilled water with a ratio of 1:100 (w/v) for 24 hours and undergoes the pre-treatment method by using ultrasonicator (37 kHz), at the temperature of 60 °C for 30 minutes. The crude extracts were obtained after about 4 hours of hydrodistillation process. The highest concentration of gallic acid and quercetin equivalent was determined in the crude extract from the particle size of 250 µm. The kinetics of pancreatic lipase inhibition was further studied based using the Lineweaver-Burk plot, wherein the concentration of p-NPP as the substrate and pancreatic lipase were varied. Based on the formation of the lines in the plot, the crude leaves extract of both Aquilaria species exhibit the mixed-inhibition on pancreatic lipase, which indicates that in the reaction, the inhibitors were not only attached to the free pancreatic lipase, but also to the pancreatic lipase-(p-NPP) complex. The reaction mechanism was similar to non-competitive inhibition; however the value of dissociation constant, Ki, for both inhibition pathways was different. The inhibition shows an increment in Michaelis-Menten constant (Km) and a reduction in the maximum pancreatic lipase activity (Vm) compared to the reaction without Aquilaria spp. crude extracts (control). This proved that the inhibition occurred in this reaction. Copyright © 2021 by Authors, Published by BCREC Group. This is an open access article under the CC BY-SA License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). 

The Effect of TiO2 Particles Addition on The Characteristics of Polysulfone Membrane

The aim of this study was to characterize the modified Polysulfone-TiO2 membrane via hydrophilic character, the molecular weight cutoff of the membrane and surface morphology of the membrane. Flat sheet modified Polysulfone membrane was prepared by using the phase inversion technique. N-methylene-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) was used as a solvent to dilute Polysulfone pellets. Titanium dioxide (TiO2) and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) were added to enhance the hydrophobic character of the Polysulfone membrane. The hydrophilic characteristic of the modified Polysulfone-TiO2 membrane was analyzed by contact angle and was compared with conventional Polysulfone membrane. It was found that the addition of TiO2 in Polysulfone membrane has improved the hydrophilic performance of Polysulfone membrane toward water flux. The membranes also were tested with molecular weight cut off (MWCO) using different weights of polyethylene glycol (PEG) which are 200, 400, 600 and 1000 Da. For membrane with the addition of TiO2, a decreased in pore sizeswas determined. The membranes also were analyzed under scanning electron microscope (SEM) in order to determine the morphology of the surface and cross-section. It was found that pore sizes of Polysulfone with TiO2 membrane has become smaller, which contain more nano in size and formation of finger-like voids compared to the Polysulfone membrane

Physico-mechanical behaviour of Oil Palm Broom Fibres (OPBF) as eco-friendly building material

Funding for this work was provided by the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) of Nigeria.Peer reviewedPostprin

Molecular dynamics simulation of the interactions between carbon dioxide and a natural-based carbonaceous microporous material

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Production, activation and CO2 uptake capacity of a carbonaceous microporous material from palm oil residues

Funding This research was funded by many parts. C.M. would like to acknowledge the Royal Society for the award of an International Exchange award (IES\R1\211069). S.F. and B.A. would like to acknowledge the Erasmus KA01 grant. A.M.-F. would like to acknowledge the Scottish Government and the Royal Society of Edinburgh for the award of a SAPHIRE project, the University of Aberdeen, for the award of two internal pump research grants, and the Royal Academy of Engineering, for the award of a Newton Fund project (NRCP1516_4_61). C.F.M would like to acknowledge the Scottish Funding Council for the award of several grants to investigate the synthesis of activated carbons from waste to reduce CO2 emissions (Grants Codes: SF10233, SF10249, and SF10164).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Enzymatic Interesterification of Crude Palm Oil with Methyl acetate: Effect of Pre-treatment, Enzyme’s Dosage and Stability

In the present study, biodiesel was produced via the enzymatic interesterification of Crude Palm Oil (CPO) and methyl acetate within ultrasonic condition. In contrast to alcohol, methyl acetate as an acyl acceptor does not inhibit lipase activity and can create triacetin as a useful byproduct.  In this work, Immobilized lipase from Candida Antartica A (CaLA) was utilized as biocatalyst and the effect of using non-pretreated CPO and pre-treated CPO as feedstock were explored. The pre-treatment of CPO involves degumming with acid, washing with water, and bleaching. The enzymatic interesterification was conducted in three-neck flasks using an ultrasonic water bath at 45o C.  Few parameter effects on biodiesel production were also investigated, including the effect of molar ratio of CPO to methyl acetate, the effect amount of lipase, and the reusability of immobilized lipase (CaLA) in the interesterification reaction.  The highest average Biodiesel yield of 80.6% was obtained from pretreated CPO at a molar ratio of 1:9 with 100 mg (1% w/v) of Immobilized CaLA, after three hours of reaction. Further research on the reusability of immobilized CaLA revealed that the yield of biodiesel reduced significantly after the second run. The results of the present study also demonstrated that Immobilized CaLA performed well at low concentrations but had low stability, with productivity decreasing to 92% upon reuse after the initial run. In order to make Immobilized lipase economically viable, further research must be conducted to overcome its low stability in the reaction

Enzymatic hydrolysis of treated palm oil empty fruit bunches fibre (efb) using combination alkali-microwave techniques

Combination of alkali-microwave pre-treatment on empty fruit bunches (EFB) fibre changed the morphology and properties of the EFB fibre as observed through scanning electron microscope (SEM) and Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). Pre-treatment process raptures the lignin and hemicellulose component inside the fibre, thus leaving available cellulose for hydrolysis process (Vlasenko et al., 1996). Most of the silica component and any impurities on the surface of the raw EFB fibre were removed during pre-treatment process, leaving an empty cauldron on the treated EFB surface. Furthermore, an internal structure of pre-treated EFB fibre showed a clear macrofibril compared to the untreated EFB fibre. The microfibrils of pre-treated fibre were separated from the initial connected structure and this exposed the cellulose to hydrolysis, thus increased the external surface area and the porosity of the pre-treated fibre (Xu et al., 2007). Generally, raw EFB fibre consists of 44.2% alpha cellulose, 33.5% hemicellulose and 20.4% lignin, respectively (Astima et al., 2002). After treating with alkali-microwave, cellulose composition increased to 64%, while hemicellulose and lignin composition reduced to 26% and 8%, respectively. Cellulose composition is also much higher in microwave treatment compared with conventional pre-treatment. Alkali-microwave pre-treated EFB fibre gave 30% soluble glucose higher than conventional pre-treatment when it was hydrolyzed with combination of cellulase and Novozyme 188. The optimum conditions obtained for hydrolysis process were at pH 5, 50 °C and 5:1 cellulase to Novozyme 188 ratio