The optimization of sodium hydroxide (NaOH) pretreatment for reducing sugar production from rice husk using Response Surface Methodology (RSM) / Nurul Khairani Aziz, Siti Sabrina Mohd Sukri and Wan Shahril Faizal Wan Yaacob

Lignocellulosic biomass is an abundant renewable resource which amounts to 1.3 billion tonnes per year and can be used in a variety of sustainable applications. It is primarily made up of tightly bound cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin. However, hemicellulose dissolution and delignification pose significant challenges to the utilisation of reducing sugar. To solve this issue, alkaline pretreatment was utilised. The aim of lignocellulosic biomass pretreatment is to break down the complex structure of the biomass and provide better access to the components that can be converted into useful reducing sugar. Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was used to identify the optimal values for the factors influencing the pretreatment. The optimisation parameters were sodium hydroxide concentration (1 – 4 % w/v), pretreatment time (15 – 60 minutes), and solid loading (6 – 16% w/v). Rice husk, which was used as biomass, was hydrolysed enzymatically to produce reduced sugar. The optimum conditions for producing the highest reducing sugar of 15.18 mg/mL from rice husk were 1.67% w/v sodium hydroxide pretreatment, 59.44 minutes of pretreatment time, and 7.67% w/v solid loading. As a result, less alkaline reagents can be used with a longer pretreatment time, thus lowering the cost of pretreatment. Therefore, this shows that RSM was one of the best methods to replace the conventional technique for optimising the parameters of rice husk alkaline pretreatment for reducing sugar production.