Combining biodelignification and hydrothermal pretreatment of oil palm empty fruit bunches (OPEFB) for monomeric sugar production

Abstract Oil palm empty fruit bunches (OPEFB) is the most abundant agro-industrial waste in Indonesia. It has 22.03–35% hemicellulose content. This paper reports the delignification of OPEFB using white-rot fungi followed by hydrothermal pretreatment to enhance the xylose and glucose production. The study was conducted by comparing the performance of two different species of white-rot fungi (Marasmius sp. and Phanerochaeta chrysosporium) in OPEFB mass loss, the ability to degrade lignin and hydrolyze OPEFB that had been treated enzymatically at various cultivation times. Marasmius sp. (26.67%) achieved the best lignin degradation ability during 20 days of cultivation. The best xylose recovery (166 mg/g OPEFB) and glucose recovery (283 g/g OPEFB) occurred at bio-delignification using Marasmius sp. for 30 days, followed by hydrothermal pretreatment for 15 min at a temperature of 160 °C. The combination of these two pretreatments increased monomeric sugar yield over the length of cultivation time.