Jeffersen Hosea Setiabang, Michael Ryan Fildy, Kezia Zefanya Limawan, Advent Roan Widiyono, Nathanael Darrell Yonas, Jocelyn Nataniel, Indra Kurniawan Saputra, Riahna Kembaren
Indonesia, a leading palm oil producer, generates 1,250 tons of Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunches (OPEFB) waste daily, typically disposed of through polluting combustion. This study explores repurposing OPEFB as a substrate for erythritol production, a popular sweetener with minimal impact on blood sugar. The research utilized Moniliella pollinis mutant SP5, a yeast capable of producing erythritol from various substrates. The process involved acid hydrolysis of OPEFB followed by fermentation. When fortified with 15% v/v molasses, OPEFB successfully served as an optimal carbon source for erythritol production, achieving a mass yield of 0.2878 g/g. Further improvement came through the use of ethyl methane sulfonate (EMS) mutagenesis, with the best mutant (mutant 7) reaching a yield mass of 0.3298 g/g and volumetric productivity of 0.0534 g/L/h. This research aims to advance Indonesia's self-sufficiency in erythritol production while providing a sustainable solution for OPEFB waste reduction, simultaneously addressing economic and environmental concerns. © 2025, Universitas Negeri Semarang. All rights reserved.
Department of Biotechnology, School of Life Sciences, Indonesia International Institute for Life Sciences, Jakarta, Indonesia; International Center for Biotechnology, Osaka University, Suita, 565-0871, Japan; Department of Chemistry, University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom; Biotechnology program, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Universitas Negeri Malang, Malang, Indonesia
