Sequential chemical and enzymatic pretreatment of palm empty fruit bunches for Candida pelliculosa bioethanol production

Second‐generation bioethanol production process was developed using pretreated empty fruit bunches (EFB). Consecutive acid/alkali EFB pretreatment was performed, first with HCl and then with NaOH with final washing steps for phenolic compounds elimination. Scanning electron microscopy images showed that EFB chemical treatments indeed attacked the cellulose fibers and removed the silica from surface pores. The optimization of enzymatic hydrolysis of EFB's cellulosic fraction was performed with 0.5%–4% v/v of Cellic® CTec2/Novozymes, different EFB concentrations (5%–15%, w/v), and hydrolysis time (6–72 H). Optimization essays were carried out in Erlenmeyer flasks and also in a 1 L stirred tank reactor. After enzymatic hydrolysis, a hydrolysate with 66 g/L of glucose was achieved with 2.2% (v/v) Cellic® CTec2, 15% (m/v) acid/alkaline pretreated EFB after 39 H of hydrolysis. A gain of 11.2% was then obtained in the 1 L stirred tank promoted by the agitation (72.2 g/L glucose). The hydrolysate was employed in bioethanol production by a new isolate Candida pelliculosa CCT 7734 in a separate hydrolysis and fermentation process reaching 16.6 and 23.0 g/L of bioethanol through batch and fed‐batch operation, respectively. An integrated biorefinery process was developed for EFB processing chain.