Bioethanol Production from Oil Palm Fronds Biomass Waste Review

Indonesia is the leading country of palm oil producers, it reaches a total area of 12.5 million hectares plantation. It generates excessive wastes as well. From those wastes, Oil Palm Frond (OPF) contributes to 61% of it. It is usually being left as a waste in the natural environment or become a fertilizer around the plantation. Instead of leaving it as a waste, it is better to make use of OPF to become a renewable source of energy. It could be a substrate to produce bioethanol because of its high sugar content. The objective of this study is to find the best method and condition to use OPF as bioethanol fermentation raw material. The methodology used in this study is literature review. Several studies have been done. It is proven that there are two ways to process OPF. First method consists of physical pretreatment of milling and drying the OPF, to obtain the dried fibers before it goes to chemical pretreatment, which includes soaking the OPF in acid or alkaline solution, prior to fermentation using Saccharomyces Cerevisiae. Another method, fermentation is carried out on the juice obtained by simply pressing the OPF. From all the research reviewed, the best method is using the juice pressed from OPF. The juice from OPF could consists up to 650 g/L sugar and has high yield of ethanol production. The OPF should be from an oil palm tree with the age of 3--4 years old to have optimum sugar content. Also, OPF that is directly connected to the inner part of the trunk have the possibility to contain more sugars than other fronds.