The effect of combining electron beam irradiation and ionic liquid soaked (ILS) pretreatment on lignocellulosic of oil palm frond (OPF)

This research was conducted to study the effect of combining electron beam irradiation and ionic liquid soaked (ILS) pretreatment on lignocellulosic of Oil Palm Frond (OPF). OPF was used as potential lignocellulosic biomass (LCB) for the production of bioethanol. OPF was pretreated by using physical (electron beam irradiation) and chemical (ionic liquid) pretreatments. In this research project, LCB were soaked with 50% (v/v) of 1-ethyl-3- methylimidazolium acetate, [EMIM]Ac for ionic liquid pretreatment and then irradiated with different doses which was 100-1000 kGy using electron beam under cooperation with Agensi Nuklear Malaysia. The characterization of treated OPF was conducted by using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD). The combination of ionic liquid soaked and electron beam irradiation on OPF was demonstrated to be more effective by the significant reduction of Lateral Order Index (LOI) (FTIR) and reduction of Crystallinity Index (CrI) (XRD). The value of LOI of ILS OPF decreased from 0.77 (untreated OPF) to 0.64 at 800 kGy doses of irradiation and CrI value of ILS OPF also decreased from 63.99% (untreated OPF) to 55.87% at 1000 kGy doses of irradiation.