Andre Fahriz Perdana Harahap, Jabosar Ronggur Hamonangan Panjaitan, Catia Angli Curie, Muhammad Yusuf Arya Ramadhan, Penjit Srinophakun, Misri Gozan
Oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB) is a potential raw material abundantly available for bioethanol production. However, the second-generation bioethanol is still not yet economically feasible. The COVID-19 pandemic increases the demand for ethanol as the primary ingredient of hand sanitisers. This study evaluates the techno-economic feasibility of hand sanitiser production using OPEFB-based bioethanol. OPEFB was alkaline-pretreated, and simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) was then performed by adding Saccharomyces cerevisiae and cellulose enzyme. The cellulose content of the OPEFB increased from 39.30% to 63.97% after pretreatment. The kinetic parameters of the OPEFB SSF at 35 °C, which included a μmax, ks, and kd of 0.018 h-1, 0.025 g/dm3, and 0.213 h-1, respectively, were used as input in SuperPro Designer® v9.0. The total capital investment (TCI) and annual operating costs (AOC) of the plant were $645,000 and $305,000, respectively, at the capacity of 2000 kg OPEFB per batch. The batch time of the modelled plant was 219 h, with a total annual production of 32,506.16 kg hand sanitiser. The minimum hand sanitiser selling price was found to be $10/L, achieving a positive net present value (NPV) of $108,000, showing that the plant is economically feasible. © 2020 by the authors.
Chemical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Indonesia, Depok, 16424, Indonesia; Chemical Engineering Program, Institut Teknologi Sumatera, Lampung, 35365, Indonesia; Chemical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Kasetsart University, Bangkok, 10900, Thailand
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