Optimization of electron beam irradiation and ionic liquid pretreatment on oil palm trunk / Wan Azizah Meor Harun

Oil palm trunk (OPT) waste from the oil palm plantation is one of the lignocellulosic biomass feedstock to produce biofuel. Pretreatment is an important process to break the rigid structure of the lignocellulose and makes it accessible for enzymatic hydrolysis. In this project, the OPT was pretreated by using electron beam irradiation and ionic liquid at varying parameters which are irradiation dose, shaking frequency, and time. The effectiveness of the pretreatment process was investigated by analyzing the crystallinity index (CrI) and lateral order index (LOI) of the pretreated OPT by using X-Ray Diffractometer (XRD) and Fourier Transform Infrared spectrometer (FTIR) and was compared with the untreated OPT. The combination of electron beam irradiation and ionic liquid is an effective method since the CrI values shown for the pretreated OPT was reduced as compared to the untreated OPT. The optimal conditions for the pretreatment process were determined by response surface methodology with Box-Behnken Design via the experimental design. The results showed that the optimal conditions for the pretreatment process are at 346.5 kGy of irradiation dose, 686.9 rpm of shaking frequency and 3 hours of dissolution time. The predicted CrI value at the optimal conditions is at 32.82%.