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A Glance On Oil Producing Plants, Pretreatment and Bioenergy Production Using Oil Producing Plant

Suraini Abd-Aziz1 and Misri Gozan2

1Universiti Putra Malaysia, Department of Bioprocess Technology, Faculty of Biotechnology & Biomolecular Sciences, Serdang, 43400, Malaysia

2Universitas Indonesia, Kampus UI, Bioprocess Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Depok, 16424, Indonesia

Oil producing plant is defined as any of the numerous plants, either under cultivation or growing wild, used as sources of oil. Oil producing plants include trees such as palm, herbaceous plants such as flax, and even fungi (Fusarium) (Encyclopaedia Britannica 2020). Oil producing plants can be categorized as edible and non-edible. In particular, this book focuses on oil producing plants in Asia that are widely distributed throughout Brunei, Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia, Timor-Leste, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Apart from the most prominent oil crops (palm oil, soybean, rapeseed, and sunflower), many other crops such as canola, mustard, flax, jatropha, corn, coconut, castor, hemp, and pennycress are good resources of oil. Vegetable oils are used principally for food mostly as shortening, margarine, salad, and cooking oils and for non-food production in the manufacture of soap, detergents, paints, varnishes, and various other industrial items. Oil is found in large amounts usually in the seeds of the plants and occasionally in the fleshy part of the fruit, as in the olive and the oil palm. Seeds may contain from 1% to more than 60% oil. The oil is a reserve of high-energy food for use by the germinating seed, and large amounts of oil are associated with large amounts of protein.

The book consists of two volumes.

Volume 1 begins with Chapter 1: Introduction to Volume 1. It discusses the biorefinery of oil producing plants that cover the topics from the availability of the oil producing plants, the types of pretreatment, and the generation of bioenergy.

Part 1: Availability of oil producing plants consists of five chapters. This part provides an overview of oil producing plants that are palm oil, castor oil, jatropha, nyamplung, and coconut.

The oil palm tree (Elaeis guineensis) originates from West Africa, where it was grown in the wild, and later, it was developed into an agricultural crop. Palm oil is the second largest source of edible oil, next only to soybean. As the demand for palm oil rises significantly over the coming decades, the sustainability of the palm oil industry must be maintained to serve billions of people (Abd-Aziz et al.: Chapter 2). Palm oil also serves as feedstock for both food and non-food industries, which makes a significant contribution to the growth of the economy. The processing of palm oil has been monitored by the respective agencies, the Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO) Certification Scheme for Indonesia, and The Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) Certification Scheme for Malaysia to ensure all the operations meet the standards and legislative regulations. Palm oil plays a very important role in feeding the world's demand for fat and oil. Thus, its sustainability to keep on serving billions of people worldwide must be maintained, improved, and supported by all the parties.

As both government and industries shift toward environmentally friendly practices, emphasizing finding renewable resources, the global oil producing plants market has seen positive growth in the last few decades.

Jatropha (Jatropha curcas) plant is originated in Mexico and now grows widespread in tropical and subtropical areas in Latin America, Asia, and Africa (Dias et al. 2012). Jatropha seeds generally contain toxic components but produce 27-40% oil, rich in palmitic acid (C16:0, 13.4-15.3%), oleic acid (C18:1, 34.3-45.8%), and linoleic acid (C18:2, 29.0-44.2%) (Meher et al. 2013). J. curcas L. is an oil crop with great potential to be used as the feedstock for biodiesel production (Srinophakun et al.: Chapter 3). This non-edible oil has advantages over edible oil in terms of stable price and free of food-feed-fuel dilemma. Nevertheless, jatropha trees can grow in many soil and rainfall types, are drought resistant, and have more tolerance to insects and pathogens than other energy plants such as corn, cassava, soybean, etc. This chapter reveals the five-year yield trial results of two jatropha varieties, KUBP 78-9 and KUBP 202, developed by the Center of Excellence for Jatropha at Kasetsart University. KUBP 78-9 has been selected and field trialed since 2004, while KUBP 202 was an interspecific hybridization variety and first yield trial was in 2012.

Castor plant (Ricinus communis) is one of the potential oil producing plants commercially used by chemical industries (Fatimah et al.: Chapter 4). This plant is cultivated around the world because of the commercial importance of its oil. Castor seeds contain about 30-50% oil, which is rich in a triglyceride called ricinolein. The "ricin" in ricinolein is referred to as the ricin protein contained in the bean, which is toxic. Castor oil is derived from the castor bean of the plant R. communis, originally from Ethiopia (Milani and Nobrega 2013). This oil has the possibility of being transformed into several different materials, including a potential alternative to petroleum-based starting chemicals. This chapter discusses many aspects of castor oil, including the cultivation, technical processing, chemical and physical quality, and its economic potency in the scheme of renewable chemicals and energy. It should be noted that the techno-economical evaluation of the synthesis reaction should be considered in conjunction with castor plant cultivation.

Nyamplung (Calophyllum inophyllum L.) is one of the oil producing plants that can be found in Indonesia, which has high potential to become biodiesel feedstock because of its high seed oil content. The seed oil content in nyamplung is in the range of 40-75% (dry weight basis), higher than jatropha seed oil content (40-60%) and rubber seed oil content (40-50%) (Hanafi et al.: Chapter 5). Nyamplung is a genus of an evergreen tree commonly found along the coastal region of eastern Africa, Madagascar, Papua New Guinea, India, Northern Australia, and tropical America along the east and west coast of the Peninsula, the islands of the Pacific Ocean, Melanesia and Polynesia, and tropics of Asia, mainly in the Indo-Malaysian region and Ceylon (Habibullah et al. 2015). Despite its high seed oil content, the yield and quality of nyamplung oil are affected by its extraction method. The common oil extraction method used in industry is mechanical extraction. It has more economic benefits than other oil extraction methods.

Coconuts are natural products that are beneficial to humans (Gozan et al.: Chapter 6). Coconut fruit can provide economic and health benefits. Factors such as the variety of the palm, stages of maturity of the nut, and growth conditions determine the kernel composition. The mesocarp and endocarp parts of the coconut fruit can be used as coconut coir and activated carbon, while the coconut kernel can be used as a source of coconut oil. The extraction process of coconut oil is divided into two, namely, wet and dry extraction. Dry extraction produces refined, bleached, and deodorized (RBD) coconut oil. Wet extraction produces a product in the form of virgin coconut oil (VCO). Almost all parts of the coconut fruit have been industrially utilized. The application and economics of coconut oil are discussed in this chapter.

Part 2: Pretreatment consists of six chapters. This chapter discusses the types of pretreatment. The importance of selecting suitable microorganisms, substrates, and pretreatment methods to determine the process parameters accounted for upstream and downstream techniques for attaining high sugar yield is discussed.

Physical and chemical pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass (Zhao et al.: Chapter 7) underlines the importance of physical and/or chemical methods before enzymatic hydrolysis by cellulase to destroy the biomass recalcitrance. A suitable pretreatment process is essential because it affects cellulase dosage and production of end products during enzymatic hydrolysis and fermentation and influences the costs of manufacturing facilities and process operation and environmental pollutions. Although various pretreatment methods that can be used for oil producing plants have been described, there is no one pretreatment method to meet all the requirements of different plants. The chapter reviews the research progress in the physical and chemical pretreatments, including pretreatment methods and fundamental mechanisms of different pretreatment processes.

Ionic liquid pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass (Wan et al.: Chapter 8) discusses newly developed chemical pretreatment methods. The pretreatment aims to improve the rate of production as well as the total yield of liberated sugars in the hydrolysis step. The Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) has developed two chemical pretreatment methods, including an ionic solution way containing zinc chloride (ZnCl2) and a solid acid catalyst way. Among them, the ionic solution pretreatment has advantages of high sugar yield...