2nd ASEAN Sago Symposium 2012, UNIMAS, Kota Samarahan ...

2 nd ASEAN Sago Symposium 2012, UNIMAS, Kota Samarahan
Advances in Sago Research and Development
Poster 13
Spectroscopic and Morphological Characterisation of Treated Sago Wastes as
Biosorbents
Siong Fong Sim 1,*, Nurul Aida Lu Mohd Irwn Lu 1, Terri Zhuan Ean Lee 1, Murtedza Mohamed 1
1 Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Faculty of Resource Science and Technology,
94300 Kota Samarahan, Sarawak, Malaysia;
*Email address of corresponding author: sfsim@frst.unimas.my
Sago industry has undergone rapid development that has simultaneously generated massive
amount of waste i.e., sago hampas. Lignocellulosic biomass has been known to be potential
biosorbents nonetheless treatment is often necessary to improve the adsorption ability. In this
paper, we treated sago hampas with citric acid, acetic acid, hydrothermal, NaOH, combination of
HCl and NaOH and H2SO4 where the spectroscopic and morphological characteristics of the
biomass were examined. Results showed that acetic acid, citric acid and hydrothermal
treatment had not resulted in significant changes. Strong acid treatment however had caused
severe hydrolysis with solubilisation of cellulose. NaOH treatment demonstrated exposure of
cellulose suggesting effective removal of hemicelluloses and lignin. Among these treatment
processes, NaOH treatment appeared to be potentially effective in improving the adsorption
ability of sago hampas.
Poster 14
Production and Purification of Sago Sugar
K.B. Bujang, N.J. Monib* & C. Nolasco-Hipolito
Department of Molecular Biology, Faculty of Resource Science and Technology,
Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, 94300 Kota Samarahan, Sarawak MALAYSIA.
*Email address of corresponding author: jannahmonib@gmail.com
Sago starch is an attractive alternative as a substrate for the production of sugar due to its
economic and geographical considerations. In this study, sago starch was used for the
production of glucose which is potentially viable as the new source of commercial sugar
through enzymatic hydrolysis of sago starch into sugars (96% glucose), achieved after about 6
hours. The objectives of this study are to develop effective filtration techniques to purify the
Hydrolysed Sago Starch (HSS) to produce Purified Sago Sugar (PSS) using Powdered Activated
Charcoal (PAC) and to observe the effects from augmentation of the purification scale.
Purification of LSS at 152g/L glucose was performed on 5g PAC packed on glasswool in a glass
tube (2.5cm diameter, and 2cm filtration height). Filtration by gravity at a flow-rate of
130ml/hr gave the highest recovery of glucose at 73% (110.5g/L) compared to on 10g and 15g
PAC, at 69% (89.8g/L) and 50% (75.4g/L), respectively. Efforts to enhance filtration of HSS was
studied using a pump (flow-rate of 460ml/hr) demonstrated that purification under forced
filtration yield a higher recovery (almost 90%, or 135.6g/L) compared to purification under
gravity. Further analyses revealed that the recovery of glucose increased by over 70% (from
101.3g/L to 153.7g/L) after 7 cycles upon filtration on the same batch of PAC. However, such
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