OrganoCat Fractionation of Empty Fruit Bunches from Palm Trees into Lignin, Sugars, and Cellulose-Enriched Pulp

The palm oil industry produces large amounts of empty fruit bunches (EFB) as waste. EFB are very recalcitrant toward further processing, although their valorization could create novel incentives and bio-economic opportunities for the industries involved. Herein, EFB have been successfully subjected to the OrganoCat pretreatment-using 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid as the biogenic catalyst-to fractionate and separate this lignocellulosic material into its main components in a single step. The pretreatment of EFB leads to the deacetylation and depolymerization of noncellulosic polysaccharides and to the partial delignification of the cellulosic fiber. The OrganoCat processing of EFB yielded 45 +/- 0.5 wt % cellulose-enriched pulp, 20 +/- 0.7 wt % extracted lignin, 3.8 +/- 0.2 wt % furfural, and 11 +/- 0.6 wt % hydrolyzed sugars. The obtained EFB-pulp showed high accessibility to cellulases, resulting in a glucan conversion of 73 +/- 2% after 72 h (15 +/- 2% after 1 h) with commercial cellulase cocktail (Accellerase 1500). Overall, the results suggest that the treatment of the EFB material using OrganoCat may create promising paths for the full valorization of EFBs.