Formic acid production from palm oil empty fruit bunches

Formic acid (FA) is a weak acid that has potential as hydrogen storage, so it can be used directly as fuel for fuel cells technology. FA can be generated as a byproduct from hydrolysis process of lignocellulose biomass. Palm oil empty fruit bunches (POEFB) is one of palm oil industry waste in Indonesia and could be used to produce chemicals such as FA. In this study, we investigated the production of FA from POEFB hydrolysis process using sulfuric acid catalyst, and we determined kinetic model of FA production from POEFB hydrolysis process. FA production was done in a pressurized reactor with temperature around 150 - 170^oC using 1M sulfuric acid catalyst. The highest FA was formed at reaction temperature of 170^oC after20 minutes reaction that produced 0.031 mol/L and 46.6 %molFA yield. FA production kinetics were also investigated by compared two kinetic models. The first model (model 1) predicted FA production from C5 (pentose sugars) and C6 (hexose sugars). On the other side, the second model(model 2) predicted FA production only from C6 sugars. Model 2 was a kinetic model that can describe FA production from POEFB hydrolysis process. Based on these kinetic model, activation energy of cellulose hydrolysis, HMF formation, humins formation and FA formation were 86.739 kJ/mol, 104.157 kJ/mol, 74.397 kJ/mol and 86.706 kJ/mol, respectively.