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Brazil Government is promoting palm plantations to use degraded land for biofuels. Palm production is expected to increase 35 per cent in future and there would be profuse biomass available that needs to be handled efficiently. Therefore, in this study the potential of EFB from Brazil as raw material for biorefinery was explored by compositional analysis and pretreatment conditions optimization to produce ethanol and co-products. EFB from Brazil contains significant cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin and low ash content. The optimized dilute sulfuric acid pretreatment conditions for efficient cellulose and hemicellulose separation were 160 °C temperature, 1.025% v/v acid concentration, 10.5 min and 20% solid loading. Under optimum pretreatment process conditions, low enzyme loading (10 FPU, 20 IU cellulase and glucosidase enzyme/g glucan) and 15% solid loading, 51.1 g ethanol, 344.1 g solid residue (65% lignin and 24.87 MJ/kg LHV) and 3.7 l xylose rich liquid could be produced per kg dry EFB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lignocellulosic material is one of the most promising feedstock frequently investigated for the biochemicals and biofuels industries. Palm empty fruit bunches (EFB) are the abundant lignocellulosic residues from the palm oil/biodiesel industry, which require special disposal and utilisation. Therefore, the valorisation of EFB as a multi-product bio-refinery feedstock promises to be economically and environmentally attractive. However, it requires further investigation and feasibility assessment. This study conducts techno-economic and life-cycle assessments in Brazil of two EFB-based biorefinery scenarios producing fuel ethanol, heat and power, and C5 syrup (as feed for cattle). In terms of environmental impact, both scenarios show a significant reduction in climate change and fossil fuel depletion. Nevertheless, the economic prospects of the biorefinery scenarios and their benefits for toxicity and eutrophication are limited under the considered conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]