Catalytic Conversion of Empty Fruit Bunch of Palm Oil for Producing Lactic Acid

Catalytic conversion of lignocellulosic biomass such as Empty Fruit Bunch (EFB) of Palm Oil into valuable chemicals such as lactic acid (LA) is an alternative route to currently fermentation route and it is a sustainable process for substituting petro-based chemical with biomass-based chemical. Conversion of lignocellulosic biomass (EFB) was conducted in a 100-ml batch reactor in aqueous solution using homogeneous AlCl3 catalyst at mild temperature in the range of 140-240 °C, under hydrothermal condition. Some chemicals are identified in the product especialy LA and levulinic acid which are valuable chemicals produced by hydrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass and yield of LA compared with cellulosic biomass for comparison of feedstock. The sugar units in the lignocellulosic biomass (EFB) was around 48.75%, dominated by glucose (28%), xylose (16.5%), and followed with lower composistion of other sugar units such as galactose (1%), arabinose (2.5%) and mannose (0.75%). The yield of EFB conversion to lactic acid was found in the range 6-8.9% at temperature 140-240 °C while for cellulosic material 19%, with reaction time 3 hours and range of fixed AlCl3 concentration 50-100 mM. Experimental results show that higher operating temperature and higher concentration of catalyst will produce higher percentage of LA. However, pretreatment of lignocelluloses with NaOH produced lower yield of LA 3.18 to 5.69% and probably the pretreatment leading to degradation of sugar units in the biomass.