Dr. Lisa G.A. ONG, Department of Biological Science, Jalan Universiti, Malaysia.

Speech Title: Utilization of microwave-assisted-alkaline treated coconut husks for bioethanol production

Abstract: Ethanol blended fuel has gain its popularity as it able to reduce the air pollution and acts as anti-knocking agent. Hence, the objective of this project was to optimize the bioethanol production via simultaneous saccharification and fermentation. The two significant factors that influence the bioethanol production were coconut husk loading (p = 0.0087) and pectinase loading (p = 0.0198) based on the Plackett-Burman design. These two factors were further optimized using a Central Composite Design (CCD). The maximum response predicted from the model would yield 0.0525 gethanol/gcoconut husk/day under the optimal conditions of MAA-pretreated coconut husks (3.06 g), cellulase (0.58 mL), pectinase (0.38 mL) and yeast extract (1 g) in 100 mL of medium (pH 6) incubated at 30oC. The experimental result gave bioethanol productivity of approximately 0.0593 gethanol/gcoconut husks/day, which was 13% higher than the estimated value (0.0525 gethanol/gcoconut husk/day). The results of validation experiments proved the usefulness and effectiveness of CCD as an optimization tool in enhancement of bioethanol production from indigenous renewable resources.