title: Ethanol and lactic acid production using sap squeezed from old oil palm trunks felled for replanting.
abstract: Old oil palm trunks that had been felled for replanting were found to contain large quantities of high glucose content sap. Notably, the sap in the inner part of the trunk accounted for more than 80% of the whole trunk weight. The glucose concentration of the sap from the inner part was 85.2g/L and decreased towards the outer part. Other sugars found in relatively low concentrations were sucrose, fructose, galactose, xylose, and rhamnose. In addition, oil palm sap was found to be rich in various kinds of amino acids, organic acids, minerals and vitamins. Based on these findings, we fermented the sap to produce ethanol using the sake brewing yeast strain, Saccharomyces cerevisiae Kyokai no.7. Ethanol was produced from the sap without the addition of nutrients, at a comparable rate and yield to the reference fermentation on YPD medium with glucose as a carbon source. Likewise, we produced lactic acid, a promising material for bio-plastics, poly-lactate, from the sap using the homolactic acid bacterium Lactobacillus lactis ATCC19435. We confirmed that sugars contained in the sap were readily converted to lactic acid with almost the same efficiency as the reference fermentation on MSR medium with glucose as a substrate. These results indicate that oil palm trunks felled for replanting are a significant resource for the production of fuel ethanol and lactic acid in palm oil-producing countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia.
authors.affiliation: Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS), 1-1 Ohwashi, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8686, Japan.
authors.forename: Akihiko
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kosugi
authors.forename: Ryohei
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Tanaka
authors.forename: Kengo
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Magara
authors.forename: Yoshinori
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Murata
authors.forename: Takamitsu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Arai
authors.forename: Othman
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Sulaiman
authors.forename: Rokiah
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hashim
authors.forename: Zubaidah Aimi Abdul
authors.initials: ZA
authors.lastname: Hamid
authors.forename: Mohd Khairul Azri
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Yahya
authors.forename: Mohd Nor Mohd
authors.initials: MN
authors.lastname: Yusof
authors.forename: Wan Asma
authors.initials: WA
authors.lastname: Ibrahim
authors.forename: Yutaka
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Mori
mesh_terms: D029064:Araceae / Q000382:microbiology*; D000431:Ethanol / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000378:metabolism*; D007220:Industrial Waste / Q000517:prevention & control; D019344:Lactic Acid / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D000073878:Palm Oil; D010936:Plant Extracts / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000378:metabolism*; D010938:Plant Oils / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000378:metabolism*; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000378:metabolism*; D014934:Wood / Q000382:microbiology*
chemical_list: D007220:Industrial Waste; D010936:Plant Extracts; D010938:Plant Oils; D019344:Lactic Acid; D000431:Ethanol; D000073878:Palm Oil