dc.description.abstract |
The production of reducing sugar is the most crucial process in the production of
cellulosic ethanol and can be divided into two steps. First, pretreatment removes the
unwanted constituents of lignocellulose to produce cellulose; then the cellulose is
hydrolyzed to glucose (a fermentable sugar) in the hydrolysis step. The study reported
on the delignification and fermentable sugar production of coffee husk biomass using
microwave-assisted alkaline pretreatment and sequential acid hydrolysis of coffee
husk took place. The coffee husk collected from Zege town was prepared and sieved
to had appropriate sizes which is necessary for conventional and microwave assisted
alkali pretreatment. Compositional analysis was performed for both raw and
microwave assisted pretreated coffee husk with NREL and ASTM protocols.
Response surface methodology with central composite design was employed to
analyze the effect of process variables on delignification. Three independent process
variables such as microwave irradiation time (5, 15 and 25 min), particle size (0.5–
0.8, 1.1-1.4 and 1.7-2.4 mm), and alkali concentration (1, 3 and 5% wt/vol) were
analyzed. A second-order nonlinear equation was developed to validate the model.
Quadratic models were generated and statistical analysis performed to validate the
adequacy of the models. The results indicated that the optimal microwave assisted
alkali pretreatment condition was 14.841 irradiation time, 1.071mm particle size and
2.898% w/v concentration. Under the optimal condition, maximum
delignification yield of 85.864% and fermentable sugar of 141.974 mg/g of raw coffee
husk was obtained using microwave-assisted alkali pretreatment method. Compared
to conventional biomass heating, higher delignification yield recorded in microwave
pretreatment. The application of microwave is an alternative conventional
pretreatment method. The present study, therefore, revealed that optimized
microwave-assisted alkali pretreatment followed by acid hydrolysis can enhance the
yield of fermentable sugars for satisfying the energy need from cellulosic bioethanol.
Key words: Coffee Husk, Delignification, Fermentable Sugar, Microwave-Assisted
Alkali Pretreatment, Response surface methodology |
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