An assessment of the potential of plantain peel ash as a potash biocatalyst for producing reducing sugar from Phoenix dactylifera seed pit

Alkaline process is one of the most efficient pretreatments for hardwoods and agricultural residues; so demand for green renewable alternatives to inorganic KOH (potassium hydroxide) for hydrolysis of cellulose, production of soap and lubricating grease become imperative. The aim of this study is to assess the potential of plantain peel ash (PPA) as a Bioalkali for lignocellulosic pretreatment of Phoenix dactylifera. Date palm seed pit (DPSP) compared to synthetic KOH. From the study, ashing 5.0 kg of plantain peels gave 9.4% ash. The combusted plantain peel ash had K 2 O as the dominant oxide (54.2 wt %) using x-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy, the concentrations of KOH extracted from PPA were quantified titrimetrically using 0.1M HCl. The chemical hydrolysis of DPSP was carried out using Taguchi L9 orthogonal array design of experiment. The factors KOH/BioKOH concentrations (0.022–1.950%), Solid to liquid ratio (1:30-1:90 w/v), treatment time (15–60 min) at 121 o C were optimized for the hydrolysis. The study indicated that the yield of reducing sugar from DPSP was 21.95 mg sugar/g substrate at 0.157% BioKOH, 30 min reaction time and 1:30 w/v solid: liquid ratio; while 29.35mg sugar/g substrate was generated using inorganic KOH at the same optimized conditions. There was no significant difference in the carbohydrate content of DPSP conversion to reducing sugar using BioKOH compared to inorganic KOH. Therefore, the use of renewable alkaline for hydrolysis of cellulosic waste to sugars, will increase the supply of sugar substitute for biofuel production, reduce cost of alkali and checkmate environmental hazard.