Hydrothermal Pretreatment of Tender Coconut Coir and Optimization of Process Parameters Using Response Surface Methodology

摘要

India is the leading country in the production of coir contributing about 60% of the world's production. This study focusses on recovery of reducing sugars from tender coir using hot water pretreatment method. For pretreatment, three independent factorsbiomass (Xi, mg/ml), time (X_2, min), and temperature, (X3, C) and one dependent factorreducing sugar (Y_(rs), %), were considered. ANOVA and optimization were done using Statistica, a statistical software. The second order model obtained after multiple regression analysis was found to be significant since the model p-value was less than 0.05. The coefficient of determination (R~2) was 0.97 and adjusted R~2 was 0.95. It was predicted that 34% reducing sugar per gram of coir could be recovered when 32.8 mg/ml biomass was pretreated for 58 mins at 173 C. The prediction was later experimentally verified.