You are on page 1of 7

Sutikno, Unila Lampung

POTENCY OF AGRO-
AGRO-INDUSTRIAL WASTE BIOMASS
FOR SECOND GENERATION OF BIO-
BIO-ETHANOL PRODUCTION
AS PETROLEUM SUBSTITUTION
Presented at “RESEARCH WORKSHOP ON SUSTAINABLE BIOFUEL DEVELOPMENT IN INDONESIA,
PROGRESS SO FAR AND FUTURE APPLIED RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES”
ASEAN Room, Sultan Hotel, Jakarta; 09.00 – 17.00 / 04 – 05 February 2009

by
Ir. Sutikno, M.Sc., Ph.D,
The University of Lampung, Bandar Lampung. 35145

1
Sutikno, Unila Lampung

POTENCY OF AGRO-
AGRO-INDUSTRIAL
INDUSTRIAL WASTE BIOMASS
FOR SECOND GENERATION OF BIO-
BIO-ETHANOL PRODUCTION
AS PETROLEUM SUBSTITUTION
Ir. Sutikno, M.Sc., Ph.D,
The University of Lampung, Bandar Lampung. 35145

Introduction
Indonesian fossil fuel reserves decrease steadily. In 1974, Indonesia had fossil fuel
reserves of 15.000 metric barrel (MB) and decreased to 5.123 MB in 2000 and to 4.301
MB in 2005 (OPEC, 2005). This was due to exploitation of the fossil fuel for many years
and limitation of geology exploration and survey to find out new fossil fuel reserves.
Without new fuel reserve addition, Indonesian fossil fuel reserve can only be explored
until the year of 2035 (Dartanto, 2005).

Meanwhile, Indonesian petroleum consumptions increase significantly. The


consumption increase is mostly due to Indonesia population and economic growth
(Dartanto, 2005). The petroleum consumption increased from 996.400 barrel daily in 2000
to 1.143.700 barrel daily in the year of 2004 (OPEC, 2005). At the same time, Indonesian
petroleum production decreased from 1.272.500 barrel daily in 2000 to 1.094.000 barrel
daily in the year of 2004 (Danarto,2005). Thus, in 2004 Indonesia had to import 49.300
barrel petroleum daily to fulfill Indonesian petroleum demands.
To overcome fossil fuel reserve depletion and petroleum consumption increase,
Indonesian government makes several efforts. One of the government efforts was the
establishment of energy policies which were declared in Inpres number 1 in the year of
2006, Inpres number 2 in the year of 2006, and Pepres number 5 in the year of 2006
(Hayun, 2008). The Inpres and Pepres instructed to develop and utilize fuel alternatives
for reducing Indonesian dependence on fossil fuel. One of the fuel alternatives is bio-fuel
such as bioethanol, biobutanol and biodiesel which utilize biomass as raw materials. The
use of biofuel as petroleum-based fuel substitution can improve sustainability and reduce
greenhouse gas emissions (Brown et al., 1998; Carere et al., 2008).

Agro-Industrial Waste Biomass


Agro-industrial waste biomass is byproduct of industries which use agricultural
products as raw materials. For example, bagasse, palm oil empty bunch (tandan kosong

2
Sutikno, Unila Lampung

kelapa sawit), and rice straw are byproducts of sugar industries, palm oil industries, and
paddy plantation, respectively. The agro-industrial byproducts are commonly cell walls
which contain lignin, cellulose, and hemicellulose (Gomez et al., 2008). Quintero-
Ramirez (2008) stated that cellulose consist of high molecular weight polymers of glucose
that are held rigidly together as bundles of fibers to provide material strength;
Hemicellulose consists of shorter polymers of various sugars that glue the cellulose
bundles together, and lignin providing rigidity to the structure consists of a tri-dimensional
polymer of propyl-phenol that is imbedded in and bound to the hemicellulose (Figure 1).
Cellulose, hemi cellulose, and lignin contents of bagasse, oil palm empty bunch, and rice
straw are not the same and stated at Table 1.

Figure 1. Polymer structure of lignocellulosic biomass


Source : Quintero-Ramirez , 2008.

Table 1. Cellulose, hemi cellulose, and lignin contents of agro-industrial waste biomass
in Indonesia
Kinds of Component Content (%) of Biomass
No Reference
Biomass Cellulose Hemi Cellulose Lignin
1 Rice straw 37.71 21.99 16.62 Dewi, 2002
2 Bagasse 52.70 20.00 24.20 Sansuri et al., 2007
Oil palm
3 45.80 26.00 - Isroi, 2008
empty bunch

Agro-industrial waste biomass in Indonesia is abundance and inexpensive and it can


fulfill Indonesian transportation fuel demands if it is converted to bioethanol via
fermentation. Indonesian paddy production in the year of 2007 was 57.160.000 ton dry
milling paddy (Media, 2008). Every ton paddy provides 5 ton rice straw as byproduct
(Agustina, 2007 in IPB, 2008). This means that in 2007, total rice straw produced was 5 x
57.160.000 ton = 285.800.000 ton. Rice straw contains 37,71% cellulose, 21,99% hemi
cellulose, and 24,20% lignin (Dewi, 2002). Based on formula found by Badger (2002),

3
Sutikno, Unila Lampung

total bioethanol produced from the straw is 45.753.728 kilo litters (kL). This amount of
bioethanol has been able to fulfill the Indonesian petroleum consumption which is only
16.418.000 kL in the year of 2004 (Wahid, 2008). With the same approach, total
bioethanol which can be generated from oil palm empty bunch and bagasse is 7.872.359
kL and 2.000.000 kL, respectively (Table 2).

Table 2 Bioethanol potency generated from agro-industrial waste biomass via microbial
fermentation in Indonesia

No Agro-industrial Potensial Ethanol


Total (ton/year) Reference
Waste Biomass produced (kL) *
a)
Rice Straw (data Media, 2008
1 285,800,000 a) 45,753,728 b)*$ b)
2006) Badger, 2007
c)
c) d) Anonim, 2005
2 Bagasse (data 2002) 39,539,944 7,872,359 * d)
Badger, 2007
Oil palm empty
3 20,750,000 2,000,000 Isroi, 2008
bunch (data 2006)

*) Calculated based on formula found by Badger, 2007.


$
) Enough for fulfilling premium demand yearly which was only 16.418.000 kL in the year of 2004
(Wahid, 2008)

Second Generation Bioethanol Production


Unlike the first generation bioethanol which is produced from starchy materials
such as corn in the USA (USDA, 2007) (Figure 2) or sugary materials such as sugar cane
in Brazil (Badger, 2002), the second generation bioethanol is generated from
lignocelluloses (Carere et al., 2008, Gomez et al., 2008, Jagger, 2009). There are four
steps to produce second generation bioethanol, i.e. (1) pretreatment of agro-industrial
waste biomass, (2) hydrolysis of cellulose and hemicelluloses, (3) fermentation of glucose
into bioethanol, and (4) bioethanol recovery (Figure 3).
To generate second generation bioethanol, lignocelluloses are collected and then
pretreated physically, chemically, biologically or combination among the three
approaches. Objectives of the pretreatment are to decrease cellulose crystallinity, increase
lignocellulosic surface area, remove hemicellulose, and break lignin seal (Quintero-
Ramirez, 2008) so that cellulose and hemicellulose hydrolysis into simple sugars can run
maximally. The simple sugars are then fermented by microbes such as Saccharomycess
cerevisiae into ethanol solution (Chanda et al., 1995). After recovery and purification,
bioethanol fulfilling technical specification of transportation fuel is ready to substitute
petroleum for transportation.

4
Sutikno, Unila Lampung

Figure 2. Steps of first generation bioethanol production from corn


Source : McCoy, 1998.

Figure 3. Steps of second generation bioethanol production from agricultural waste


biomass
Source : Knauf and Moniruzzaman, 2004.

Up to now, the production cost of second generation bioethanol is still high; A Key
to unlocking low cost the second generation bioethanol is a pretreatment step which
provides significant effects on the other steps (Figure 4). The pretreatment generally refers
to the disruption of the naturally resistant carbohydrate-lignin shield that limits the
accessibility of enzymes to cellulose and hemicellulose (Yan and Wyman, 2008).

Figure 4. A simplified process flow diagram for biological conversion of cellulosic


biomass to ethanol illustrating potential effects of pretreatment on other operation
Source : Yang and Wyman, 2008.

5
Sutikno, Unila Lampung

However, the choice of pretreatment technology is not trivial and must take into account
sugar-release patterns and solid concentrations for each pretreatment in conjunction with
their compatibility with the overall process, feedstock, enzymes, and organisms to be
applied. Therefore, researches to find out the best pretreatment for certain agro-
industrial waste biomass in Indonesia should be carried out intensively and Indonesian
New & Renewable Energy Society (METI) should coordinate and communicate among
Indonesian researchers in order to realize production in commercial scale of the
second generation bioethanol in Indonesia in efficient and effective ways. It is hoped
that Indonesia which has huge and cheap waste biomasses can catch up other country
progress such as Brazil which has build several pilot plants of the second generation
bioethanol from sugar cane bagasse in the year of 2009 (Jagger, 2009).

Conclusion
Productions of the second generation bioethanol from agro-industrial waste
biomass are essential in order to overcome our excessive dependence on petroleum
for liquid fuels and also to address the build-up of greenhouse gases that cause global
climate change. Biological conversion offers a potential for radical technical advances
through application of the powerful tools of modern biotechnology to realize truly low
costs. However, pretreatment step is the key cost element in the biological conversion
of agro-industrial waste biomass to bioethanol or other products, such as biobutanol,
that still require low cost sugars to be cost competitive. In addition, pretreatment step can
have invasive impacts on the performance and cost of virtually all other operation steps.
Thus, pretreatment steps must be advanced and carefully integrated with the rest of
the process to realize the full potential of cellulosic ethanol or other biologically
derived products. Although a wide range of pretreatment approaches have been
conducted over the years, only a few achieve the high yields of sugars from biomass with
low enough costs to be considered attractive, and all of them rely on chemical addition.
Unfortunately, relatively little funding has targeted advancing either the technologies or
their understanding, impeding significant breakthroughs that reduce cost and more
confident commercial applications. It is now time for far more aggressive and intensive
to carry out fundamental and applied researches on the pretreatment step and its
integration with the rest of the second generation bioethanol process.

6
Sutikno, Unila Lampung

References
Anonim, 2005. Pemanfaatan Ampas Tebu (bagasse) Untuk Bahan Baku Pulp dan Kertas Masih Hadapi
Kendala. http://www.dephut.go.id/INFORMASI /HUMAS/2005/563_05htm. 2005. Diunduh pada
tanggal 05 April 2007.
Badger, P.C. 2002. Ethanol from cellulose: A general review. P 17-21 In: J.Janick and A. Whipkey (eds)
Trenin new crop and new uses. ASHS Press, Alexandria, VA., USA
Brown, M.A., Levine, M.D., Romm, J.P.P., Koomey, J.H. 1998. Engineering-economic studies of energy
technologies to reduce green house gas emissions: opportunities and challenges. Annual review of
energy environment (1998), 23:31-39.
Carere, C.R., Sparling, R., Cicek, N., and Levin, D.B. 2008. Third generation biofuel via direct cellulose
fermentation. International Journal of Molecular Sciences (2008), 9:1342-1360.
Chanda, B.S., Kanwar, S.S., Garcha, H.S. 1995. Simultaneous saccharification and fermentation of rice straw
into ethanol. Acta Microbiol Immunol Hung; 42(1):71.
Dartanto, T. 2005. BBM, kebijakan energi, subsidi, dan kemiskinan di Indonesia; Inovasi online Vol 5/XVII
Nopember 2005 (http://io.ppi.jepang.org/ article.php?id=102); Down loaded on 27 Desember 2008.
Dewi, K.H. 2002. Hidrolisis biomasa limbah hasil pertanian secara enzimatik. Akta Agrosia Vol 5 No. 2:
67-71.
Gomez, L.D., Steel-King, C.G., and McQueen-Mason, J. 2008. Sustainable liquid biofuels from biomass: the
writing’s on the wall. New Phytologist (2008) 178: 473-485.
Hayun A., 2008. Prioritas pengembangan energy alternative biofuel di Indonesia. http://mmt.its.ac.id/library/
wp-content/uploads/2008/12/4-anggara-hayun-a.pdf, Down loaded on December 19, 2008
IPB, 2008. Agenda riset Institut Pertanian Bogor 2009-2012, draft; 2008 http// www.geocities.com/
markal_bppt/publish/biofbbm/ Down loaded on 27 Desember 2008.
Isroi, 2008. Potensi biomassa lignoselulosa di Indonesia sebagai bahan baku bioetanol: Tandan kosong
kelapa sawit. http://isroi.wordpress.com/2008/04/29/potensi-biomassa-lignoselulosa-di-indonesia-
sebagai-bahan-baku-bioetanoltandan-kosong-kelapa-sawit/#more-484
Jagger, A. 2009. Brazil invests in second-generation biofuel. Biofuels, Bioprod., Bioref. 3:8-10
Knauf, M. and Moniruzzaman,M. 2004. Lignocellulosic biomass processing: A perspective. Iinternational
Sugar Journal (2004) Vol. 106, No. 1263: 147-150
McCoy, M. 1998. “Biomass Ethanol Inches Forward,” Chemical And Engineering News, Dec. 7, 1998: 29.
Media, T. 2008. Berita Pertanian Online: Angka ramalan (aram) II produksi padi, jagung, kedelai 2008 capai
rekor baru. http://balitsereal.litbang.deptan.go.id/ bjagung/dua.pdf. Down loaded on 23 des 2008
OPEC, 2005. Annual statistic bulletin. http://www.opec.org/library/Annual%20Statistical%Buletin.
Quintero-Ramirez, R. 2008. Hydrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass. http://www.apta.sp.gov.br/
cana/anexos/paper_quintero_Brazil.pdf. Down loaded on Jan 29, 2009.
Samsuri, M., Gozan1, M., Mardias, R., Baiquni, M., Hermansyah1, H., Wijanarko, A., Prasetya, B., dan
Nasikin, M. 2007B. Pemanfaatan sellulosa bagas untuk produksi ethanol melalui sakarifikasi dan
fermentasi serentak dengan enzim xilanase. Makara, Teknologi, Vol. 11, No. 1, APRIL 2007: 17-24.
Taherzadeh, M.J., and Karimi, K. 2007. Acid-based hydrolysis processes for ethanol from lignocelllulosic
materials: A review. BioResources 2(3):472-499
USDA, 2007. Annual report of Research Project: Industrially robust enzymes and microorganisms for
production of sugars and ethanol from agricultural biomass. http://www.ars.usda.gov.research/
projects/projects.htm?ACCN_N. Down loaded on 7 Desember 2008
Wahid, L.M 2008. Pemanfaatan bioethanol sebagai bahan bakar kendaraan berbahan bakar premium.
http://www.geocities.com/markal_bppt/publish/biofbbm/ biwahid.pdf. Down loaded on 23 Des 2008.
Yang, B. and Wyman, C.E. 2008. Pretreatment: the key to unlocking low cost cellulosic ethanol. Biofuels,
Bioprod, Bioref. 2:26-40

You might also like