IJASEIT

International Journal on Advanced Science, Engineering and Information Technology, Vol. 8 (2018) No. 3, pages: 842-848, DOI:10.18517/ijaseit.8.3.3985

Utilization of Empty Fruit Bunch Fiber of Palm Oil Industry for Bio-Hydrogen Production

Eka Sari, Mohammad Effendy, Nufus Kanani, - Wardalia, - Rusdi

Abstract

Empty fruit bunch fiber (EFB_f) is a type of biomass waste generated by the palm oil industry, which accounts for approximately 22-23% of the total fresh fruit produced to make CPO. Currently, the total waste of EFB_f in Indonesia stands at about 5 million tons per year. It is necessary, therefore, to find solutions for utilizing this abundance. One alternative is to produce bio-hydrogen from the EFB_fbio-mass waste. The early stage of the process was to convert EFB_F biomass waste into bio-ethanol, which could then be subjected to high temperatures in a ‘cracking’ process to produce bio-hydrogen. The characteristics of the bio-ethanol were analysed, and it was used as Bio-ethanol Reformer, a raw material in the cracking process. The results showed that a pre-treatment process using sodium hydroxide at a concentration of 6% for 60 minutes resulted in an 86.69% elimination of lignin. Pre-treated EBF_f bio-mass waste hydrolysed using sulphuric acid at a concentration of 6% for 60 minutes, produced 0.6054% glucose. The fermentation process showed 6.58% bio-ethanol. Based on the characteristics of the bio-ethanol produced in this experiment, a simulation calculation for the production of bio-hydrogen was then performed using the cracking process of bio-ethanol with specified process conditions. The simulation calculations showed that the yield of bio-hydrogen in the cracking process reached 21.4%.