Optimization of Ultrasound-enhanced Subcritical Water Hydrolysis of Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunch for the Production of Fermentable Sugar

To enhance the hydrolysis to produce fermentable sugar, oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB) has undergone ultrasonication pretreatment prior to subjection to subcritical water hydrolysis. This work aims to optimize the effect of temperature, reaction time, and the concentration of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) as the surfactant, with the primary aim of maximizing sugar production in the subcritical water hydrolysis process applied to oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB). The pretreatment process conditions were optimized using response surface methodology of the central composite design (RSM–CCD). The experimental design includes three factors and levels, with a range of 180–220 °C temperature (X1), 60–80 minutes process time (X2), and 1–5% w/w SDS concentration (X3), an α value of 1.68, and reducing sugar concentration (g/L) as response (Y1). The optimum condition for subcritical water hydrolysis of OPEFB was obtained at 208 °C, 78 minutes, and 2.6% w/w SDS concentration with an expected yield of 6.09 g/L. As a result, reducing sugar produced by enzymatic hydrolysis increased by 324.7% compared to raw OPEFB, with sugar yield of 45.64% after 36 hours. Along these, changes in crystallinity, chemical composition, lignocellulosic functional groups, and morphology were analyzed to determine the impact of the pre-treatment on OPEFB.