The effect of acid and alkali pre-treatment methods on pineapple peel waste for bio-ethanol production

• Main Authors: Hasbullah, Hasrinah, Sadikin, Aziatul Niza, Md. Kasmani, Rafiziana, Asli, Umi Aisah, Ibrahim, Norazana, Rasit Ali, Roshafima
• Format: Conference or Workshop Item
• Published: 2015
• Subjects: TP Chemical technology
• Online Access: http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/62085/; http://geasc-conf.org/

Pretreatment processes are key technologies for producing fermentable sugars from lignocelluloses biomass. In the present work, two pretreatment techniques using diluted acid (H2SO4) and diluted alkali (NaOH) have been compared for producing bio-ethanol from pineapple peel waste (PPW). Treatment’s performances under different conditions (reaction temperature, reaction time and acid/alkali concentration) have been assessed and statistically optimized with respect to the response upon standardized two-stage acid hydrolysis process. The diluted acid treatment performed at optimal conditions (80oC, 50 min and 2.0% acid concentration) gave 74.4% glucose yield, comparable to those of other commonly investigated feedstocks. Oppositely, treatment with dilute alkali has shown lower performances under the conditions explored. These results indicate that the acid and alkali pretreated PPW could be broadly useful as a novel biomass for bio-ethanol production.