Bioprocessing of Oil Palm Biomass for Biofuel Production

Oil palm biomass, notably empty fruit bunches, trunks and fronds, constitutes an abundant lignocellulosic resource with the potential to deliver sustainable biofuels while mitigating residue disposal challenges. Bioprocessing typically involves collection of biomass residues, pretreatment to disrupt lignin and expose carbohydrate polymers, enzymatic hydrolysis to release fermentable sugars, microbial fermentation to convert sugars into ethanol or other biofuels, and purification of the final product. Advances in alkaline, steam and hydrothermal pretreatments, combined with tailored enzyme formulations and robust microbial consortia, have progressively improved sugar yields and ethanol titres. Integration of biorefinery concepts enables valorisation of lignin fractions for heat, power or high-value phenolic chemicals, enhancing process economics. Key challenges remain in reducing enzyme costs, managing feedstock heterogeneity and scaling up reactor designs with efficient heat and mass transfer. Given that global palm oil cultivation generates over 80 million tonnes of biomass annually, optimised bioprocessing routes offer a pathway to rural development, circular-economy models and substantial greenhouse-gas savings.

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Bioprocessing of Oil Palm Biomass for Biofuel Production publication trend

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Technical terms

Lignocellulosic biomass: Plant material composed of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin that serves as feedstock for biofuel production.

Pretreatment: A physicochemical process applied to biomass to disrupt lignin structures and enhance enzyme access to carbohydrates.

Enzymatic hydrolysis: The biocatalytic conversion of cellulose and hemicellulose into fermentable sugars using specialised enzymes.

Simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF): A process combining enzymatic saccharification and microbial fermentation in a single reactor to convert sugars to biofuel in one step.

Delignification: The removal or breakdown of lignin from biomass to improve the accessibility of cellulose fibres to hydrolytic enzymes.

References

1. Pre-treatment of Oil Palm Biomass for Fermentable Sugars Production. Molecules (2018).
2. Simultaneous Saccharification and Fermentation of Empty Fruit Bunches of Palm for Bioethanol Production Using a Microbial Consortium of S. cerevisiae and T. harzianum. Fermentation (2022).
3. Physicochemical Properties and Lignin Degradation of Thermal-Pretreated Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunch. Energies (2020).
4. Integrated Biorefinery of Empty Fruit Bunch from Palm Oil Industries to Produce Valuable Biochemicals. Processes (2020).