Enzymatic Hydrolysis Of Olive Industry Solid Waste Into Glucose, The Precursor Of Bioethanol

Jeft is a solid by-product generated during olive oil production. As a lignocellulose, jeft material is consist of cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin and other extractives. Previous research work successfully extracted about 40-45% cellulose from jeft raw materials. Jeft is considered as a biomass sources for the production of renewable energy. Our study investigated the process of hydrolyzing jeft into its monomers, glucose through the a two-step process that involves activation by pre-treatment of olive pulp with water, NaOH, Ca(OH)₂ and acetic acid. The activation step was followed by an enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose to glucose. A combination of two enzymes cellulase and β-glucosidase were used in the hydrolysis. The aim of this step was to convert glucose to ethanol which is used as fuel source. The highest yield of 85.02% glucose was obtained using enzyme concentration cellulose of 15.0 mg/g jeft and β-glucosidase 20.0 mg/g jeft at 45°C with 10% NaOH pre-treated jeft sample for 8 hr at pH = 4.8. Whereas a pure cellulose produces about 95.30% glucose which is considered the highest yield obtained in our project in the same condition listed above.