Alkaline Hydrolysate of Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunch as Potential Substrate for Biovanillin Production via Two-Step Bioconversion

High demand of natural vanillin in the worldwide market leads to the production of biovanillin using lignocellulosic biomass. In this study, alkaline hydrolysate of oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB) was used as potential substrate for biovanillin production via two-step bioconversion. Based on the results obtained, 41 % vanillic acid and 39 % biovanillin were produced using alkaline hydrolysate of OPEFB as substrate. Besides that, formulated alkaline hydrolysate of OPEFB was employed based on the phenolic compounds composition in the alkaline hydrolysate of OPEFB in order to evaluate the significance of those compounds towards vanillic acid production using two level factorial design. Ferulic acid is the major component for the production of vanillic acid production with the significantly highest molar yield conversion of 53 %. For the combined interactions, the model showed that the combination of ferulic acid/p-coumaric acid and ferulic acid/p-hydroxybenzoic acid had antagonistic interaction as it significantly led to the reduction of vanillic acid. Vanillic acid as the intermediate compound in the two-step bioconversion of OPEFB provides a potential substrate for biovanillin production.