The effect of Saccharomyces cerevisiae concentrations on second generation bioethanol production from oil palm frond

Oil palm is one of the plantation commodities that have important role in economic activity in Indonesia. With a total area of 11.30 million hectares and 75,517,083 tons of oil palm waste per year and it has a calorific value of 3350 kcal/kg, it has the potential to contribute alternative energy from the biomass. In addition to being utilized as an environmentally friendly renewable energy source, conversion of oil palm to bioethanol also helps to reduce untapped waste. Producing bioethanol from oil palm frond can be done through fermentation process. One of factors that affect the fermentation process is the number of cells of microorganisms. The microorganism used in this study is Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of Saccharomyces cerevisiae concentration on fermentation process on bioethanol produced and determine the best time of fermentation to bioethanol production from oil palm frond. The production of bioethanol from oil palm frond includes stages of delignification of oil palm frond using KOH solution obtained from empty fruit bunches ash extract, purification of oil palm using 3% H2O2 solution, hydrolysis using 1% H2SO4 with 100°C for 60 minutes, and fermentation using Saccharomyces cerevisiae with variation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae concentration 4 g/L, 6 g/L, 8 g/L, and 10 g/L. The maximum sugar concentration produced by the hydrolysis process was 117.55 g/L. The best bioethanol concentration was obtained at 3.29% (v/v) or 25.97 g/L at Saccharomyces cerevisiae 8 g/L concentration and 96 hours fermentation time. (paper)