By
Monica Perdhani Putri 11404034
BACHELOR’S DEGREE in
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING - SUSTAINABLE ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT FACULTY OF LIFE SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGY
SWISS GERMAN UNIVERSITY The Prominence Tower
Jalan Jalur Sutera Barat No. 15, Alam Sutera Tangerang, Banten 15143 - Indonesia
Revision after Thesis Defense on 25th July 2018
Monica Perdhani Putri STATEMENT BY THE AUTHOR
I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and to the best of my knowledge, it contains no material previously published or written by another person, nor material which to a substantial extent has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma at any educational institution, except where due acknowledgement is made in the thesis.
Monica Perdhani Putri
_____________________________________________
Student Date
Approved by:
Dr.-Ing Diah I. Widiputri, S.T., M.Sc
_____________________________________________
Thesis Advisor Date
Dr.-Ing. Evita H. Legowo
_____________________________________________
Thesis Co-Advisor Date
Dr. Dipl.-Ing. Samuel P. Kusumocahyo
_____________________________________________
Dean Date
Monica Perdhani Putri ALKALINE PRETREATMENT OF OIL PALM LIGNOCELLULOSIC WASTE
FOR BIOGAS PRODUCTION UNDER WET AND SOLID STATE FERMENTATION
By
Monica Perdhani Putri
Dr.-Ing Diah I. Widiputri, S.T., M.Sc, Advisor Dr.-Ing. Evita H. Legowo, Co-Advisor
SWISS GERMAN UNIVERSITY
Oil palm empty fruit bunch (EFB) and oil palm frond (OPF) are the overflowing lignocellulosic waste from the oil palm plantation. Converting them into biogas through anaerobic digestion is a solution for alternative energy resources.
Unfortunately the digestibility of EFB and OPF are low, therefore pretreatment is an important step. The objective of this research is to study the pretreatment process and to find the best fermentation condition. Two pretreatment methods were applied in this research, mechanical and chemical pretreatment. In mechanical pretreatment, EFB was shredded and OPF were chopped. For chemical pretreatment, EFB and OPF were soaked for 24 hours at room temperature using 5% of NaOH solution. Solid state and wet fermentation conditions were applied in this research. Cow manure was used as inoculum. Under solid state fermentation, the NaOH pretreated substrates was not able to improve the biogas production due to the basic condition. The highest methane volume produced was from the untreated substrates with 40 mL volume. Under wet fermentation, the NaOH pretreated substrates was able to improve the biogas production with 685 mL of methane gas, even though the increase was not significant.
Keywords: Biogas, Lignocellulosic biomass, EFB, OPF, Anaerobic digestion, Solid state fermentation, Wet fermentation, Alkaline pretreatment
Monica Perdhani Putri
© Copyright 2018 by Monica Perdhani Putri
All rights reserved
Monica Perdhani Putri DEDICATION
This works is dedicated to my parents, relatives, and teachers who messed my life up by making me study chemical engineering, and for future researcher who will make a
better future of our world.
Monica Perdhani Putri ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First and foremost, thank to Allah SWT who granted me with grace and blessing to successfully accomplish this thesis work. Above all, I would like to thank my beloved family; papa, mama, and my brother for their love, help, prayers, and endless supports that given me strength during the difficult times,
I would like like to offer my sincerest gratitude to my advisor Mrs. Dr.-Ing Diah I.
Widiputri S.T., M.Sc,for always spare some of her time to answer all of my question and for being really kind and patient towards me on guiding me until this thesis work can be finally accomplished. To Mrs. Dr.-Ing. Evita H. Legowo, as my co-advisor, who always supports me throughout this research. To Mr. Dr. Irvan S. Kartawiria S.T., M.Sc., who also guides me and answers all of my questions. With their patience, valuable guidance and their precious help along the research time, this thesis work could have been written and completed. One simply could not wish for a better advisor. It will always be an honour to be counted as one of her student.
I would also like to extend my gratefulness to my friend, my best friend, partner in almost everything, Barry Wiethoff, for always be my mental support and helping me with almost the entire equipment’s problems. My sincere thanks also go to my friend, Vincentius, for the advice, discussion and always answering my questions, to the laboratory assistant, Kak Roziq and Pratiwi, my fellow friends Meliyanti, Angela Hartati and also Nadya Sanjaya, for all the laughs and accompanies. Also to the rest of my friends in the 1st batch of Sustainable Energy and Environment study program.
Appreciation cannot be expressed fully to all the people mentioned above, so I would like to thank them once again. I hope this work could help the people who read this to get more knowledge.
Monica Perdhani Putri TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
STATEMENT BY THE AUTHOR ... 2
ABSTRACT ... 3
DEDICATION ... 5
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ... 6
TABLE OF CONTENTS ... 7
LIST OF FIGURES ... 10
LIST OF TABLES ... 12
CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION ... 13
1.1 Background ... 13
1.2 Research Problems ... 15
1.3 Research Objective ... 15
1.4 Significance of Study ... 15
1.5 Research Questions ... 15
1.6 Hypothesis ... 16
CHAPTER 2 – LITERATURE REVIEW ... 17
2.1 Oil Palm ... 17
2.2 Empty Fruit Bunch ... 18
2.3 Oil Palm Frond ... 20
2.4 Biogas Production Through Anaerobic Digestion ... 22
2.4.1 Hydrolysis ... 23
2.4.2 Acidogenesis ... 23
2.4.3 Acetogenesis ... 23
2.4.4 Methanogenesis ... 24
2.5 Pretreatment Process of Biogas Production ... 24
2.5.1 Mechanical Pretreatment... 25
2.5.2 Chemical – Alkaline Pretreatment ... 26
2.6 Fermentation Process ... 27
2.6.1 Wet Fermentation ... 28
Monica Perdhani Putri
2.7 Fermentation Test Apparatus ... 29
CHAPTER 3 – RESEARCH METHODS ... 30
3.1 Venue and Time ... 30
3.2 Materials and Equipment ... 30
3.2.1 Materials ... 30
3.2.2 Equipments ... 31
3.3 Design of Experiment ... 32
3.4 Equipments Preparation ... 34
3.4.1 Sealing Liquid Preparation ... 34
3.4.2 Batch Test Setup ... 34
3.5 General Procedure ... 35
3.6 Sample Preparation ... 37
3.6.1 Determining Total Solid For Anaerobic Digestion ... 37
3.6.2 Pretreatment Process ... 38
3.6.2.1 Mechanical Pretreatment ... 38
3.6.2.2 Alkaline Pretreatment ... 39
3.7 Fermentation Test Setup ... 40
3.7.1 Solid State Fermentation Setup ... 40
3.7.2 Wet Fermentation Setup ... 40
3.8 Lignocellulose Analysis ... 41
CHAPTER 4 – RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS ... 43
4.1 Preliminary Stage of the Experiment ... 43
4.1.1 Total Solid Content ... 43
4.1.2 Substrate and Inoculum Input for Solid State Fermentation ... 44
4.1.3 Substrate and Inoculum Input for Wet Fermentation ... 45
4.1.4 Lignocellulosic Content of the Substrate ... 45
4.2 Biogas Production under Solid State and Wet Fermentation ... 47
4.2.1 Effect of Pre-treatment Process on Biogas Amount ... 47
4.2.2 Effect of Different Fermentation Methods on Biogas Produced ... 49
4.3 The Composition of the Biogas Produced under Solid State Fermentation and Wet Fermentation ... 50
4.3.1 Daily Methane Content ... 51
4.3.2 Cumulative Result of Methane Volume ... 53
4.3.3 Cumulative Result of CO2 Production ... 55
Monica Perdhani Putri 4.4 Optimum Fermentation Process for Biogas Production from Oil Palm
Lignocellulosic Waste ... 58
4.5 Biogas Energy Yield Analysis ... 59
CHAPTER 5 – CONCLUSION AND RECCOMENDATIONS ... 60
5.1 Conclusion ... 60
5.2 Recommendations ... 60
REFERENCES ... 61
APPENDICES ... 64
CURRICULUM VITAE ... 69
