Oil palm empty fruit bunch to biofuels and chemicals via SO2–ethanol–water fractionation and ABE fermentation

A process has been developed for conversion of spent liquor produced by SO2–ethanol–water (SEW) fractionation of oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB) fibers to biofuels by ABE fermentation. The fermentation process utilizes Clostridia bacteria that produce butanol, ethanol and acetone solvents at a total yield of 0.26 g/g sugars. A conditioning scheme is developed, which demonstrates that it is possible to utilize the hemicellulose sugars from this agricultural waste stream by traditional ABE fermentation. Fractionation as well as sugar hydrolysis in the spent liquor is hindered by the high cation content of OPEFB, which can be partly removed by acidic leaching suggesting that a better deashing method is necessary. Furthermore, it is inferred that better and more selective lignin removal is needed during conditioning to improve liquor fermentability.