Efficient delignification of pineapple waste by low-pressure steam heating pre-treatment

Abstract

Fermentable sugars synthesized from pineapple waste (PW) biomass can be potentially used to supplement increasing demand for the application in fine chemicals, pharmaceuticals, agriculture, cosmetics, and many more. To produce fermentable sugars, pre-treatment process is required to break the complex structure of PW. This is a challenging process due to the incalcitrant structure of lignocellulosic material. With this regard, extensive research have been done to improve the efficiency of pre-treatment method for maximum fermentable sugars production. This project focuses on assessing the efficiency of low-pressure steam heating (LPSH) as a mean of pre-treating a mixture of pineapple waste using commercial pressure cooker without using harsh catalysts and at a potentially reduced energy expenditure. Optimized condition of LPSH pre-treatment, (60 kPa, 30 minutes) at 2.5% biomass loading successfully resulted in 60.89% lignin removal and retained as high 91% of hemicellulose and 77.6% of cellulose from the biomass. Due to the high lignin removal, it is projected to improve the cellulose and hemicellulose accessibility to enzyme hydrolysis and enhance the sugar recovery.