Xylitol Production from Aspergillus niger using Empty Fruit Bunches (EFBs) as a Substrate by Submerged Fermentation

Abstract

Abstract Xylitol is a sugar alcohol that has five carbon chains and is one of the commercial products whose use is quite high in Indonesia, but its availability is still low. Xylitol is widely used in food, pharmaceutical, and cosmetic industries. The production of xylitol can be carried out through fermentation using microorganisms and pure xylose as a substrate, but the use of pure xylose is quite expensive so it will increase production costs. Xylose can be replaced by hydrolysate xylose from agricultural waste. Empty Fruit Bunches (EFBs) is one of the agricultural wastes which has a high hemicellulose content, which is 35%. The high hemicellulose content from EFBs can be used as a substrate in the production of xylitol by submerged fermentation. This research was conducted to determine the effect of variations substrate concentration on xylitol production, evaluate the effect of Aspergillus niger growth rate on xylitol production, and determine the concentration of xylitol produced during the fermentation process. The concentration variations of the substrate were 14.28%, 28.57%, and 42.85%. The result of this research indicated that the substrate concentration increase led to increasing cell concentration, cell growth rate, xylitol concentration, and xylitol production rate. The highest substrate concentration resulted in a cell concentration of 0.0078 g/ml, a cell growth rate of 0.00014 cells/hour, a xylitol concentration of 189.00 mg/ml, and a xylitol production rate of 2.861 mg/hour.