Optimization of NaOH Pretreatment for Enhancement of Biogas Production of Banana Pseudo-Stem Fiber using Response Surface Methodology

In this paper, the NaOH pretreatment of banana pseudo-stem fiber for biogas production was investigated using a statistically designed set of experiments. A central composite design was used to identify the optimum pretreatment condition for four factors, i.e., NaOH concentration, pretreatment temperature, pretreatment time, and fiber length, on biogas fermentation of banana pseudo-stem fiber. The best pretreatment condition was 7.8% NaOH, 0.2-cm fiber length, and a temperature of 48 degrees C for 3 days. NaOH pretreatment increased the biogas yield of banana pseudo-stem fiber. The highest biogas yield was 463.0 mL.g(-1)VS(added), which was 89.2% higher than that of the control, at 244.7 mL.g(-1)VS(added).