title: Oil palm empty fruit bunch to biofuels and chemicals via SO2-ethanol-water fractionation and ABE fermentation.
abstract: A process has been developed for conversion of spent liquor produced by SO2-ethanol-water (SEW) fractionation of oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB) fibers to biofuels by ABE fermentation. The fermentation process utilizes Clostridia bacteria that produce butanol, ethanol and acetone solvents at a total yield of 0.26 g/g sugars. A conditioning scheme is developed, which demonstrates that it is possible to utilize the hemicellulose sugars from this agricultural waste stream by traditional ABE fermentation. Fractionation as well as sugar hydrolysis in the spent liquor is hindered by the high cation content of OPEFB, which can be partly removed by acidic leaching suggesting that a better deashing method is necessary. Furthermore, it is inferred that better and more selective lignin removal is needed during conditioning to improve liquor fermentability.
authors.affiliation: Aalto University, School of Chemical Technology, Department of Forest Products Technology, POB 16400, FI-00076 Aalto, Finland. Electronic address: evangelos.sklavounos@aalto.fi.
authors.forename: Evangelos
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sklavounos
authors.affiliation: Aalto University, School of Chemical Technology, Department of Forest Products Technology, POB 16400, FI-00076 Aalto, Finland.
authors.forename: Mikhail
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Iakovlev
authors.affiliation: Aalto University, School of Chemical Technology, Department of Biotechnology and Chemical Technology, POB 16100, FI-00076 Aalto, Finland.
authors.forename: Shrikant
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Survase
authors.affiliation: Aalto University, School of Chemical Technology, Department of Biotechnology and Chemical Technology, POB 16100, FI-00076 Aalto, Finland.
authors.forename: Tom
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Granström
authors.affiliation: Aalto University, School of Chemical Technology, Department of Forest Products Technology, POB 16400, FI-00076 Aalto, Finland; University of Maine, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, 5737 Jenness Hall, Orono, ME 04469-5737, USA.
authors.forename: Adriaan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: van Heiningen
mesh_terms: D003013:Clostridium / Q000378:metabolism; D000431:Ethanol / Q000737:chemistry*; D005285:Fermentation; D000073878:Palm Oil; D010938:Plant Oils; D013431:Sulfates / Q000737:chemistry*; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D010938:Plant Oils; D013431:Sulfates; D014867:Water; D000431:Ethanol; D000073878:Palm Oil
keywords: ABE fermentation; Biofuels; Butanol; OPEFB fibers; SEW fractionation