Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunch (OPEFB) Pretreatment Simulation with Ammonia Soaking and Ammonia Expansion Method for Levulinic Acid and Furfural Production

OPEFB is a waste product from oil palm mills and is abundant in quantity. OPEFB is a lignocellulosic compound containing cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin. The cellulose in OPEFB can be converted into levulinic acid, while hemicellulose can be converted into furfural. The consumption of furfural and levulinic acid in Indonesia is increasing, and so far, the demand has been met through imports. Pretreatment is the first stage in converting OPEFB into valuable products. In this paper, we have simulated furfural and levulinic acid production from OPEFB using two pretreatment methods: ammonia soaking and ammonia expansion. Both process simulations were carried out using Superpro Designer v9.0, with 17,520 metric tons OPEFB/year capacity as input raw material. The simulation of furfural and levulinic acid production using the ammonia expansion pretreatment process resulted in feasibility indicators including a payback period of 2.56 years, an ROI (Return on Investment) of 34.07%, and an IRR (Internal Rate of Return) of 28.62%. On the other hand, using the ammonia-soaking process resulted in an IRR of 22.26%. These parameters indicate that furfural and levulinic acid production is more economically viable using the ammonia expansion pretreatment process than the ammonia soaking pretreatment process.