About This Project

Indonesia is one of the largest palm oil producer in the world. Palm oil waste such as oil palm empty fruit bunches are polluting our country. We try to degrade oil palm empty fruit bunches into useful products such as bioethanol and cellulose acetate using bacterial cellulose from intestinal wastes slaughterhouses. we make a recombinant bacterium capable of degrading cellulose palm oil Empty Fruit Bunch. The benefits of this research is to reduce waste pollution and produce a useful product.

Ask the Scientists

What is the context of this research?

One palm oil waste in the form of solid biomass lots is empty fruit bunches (20% of the total weight of whole). The composition of alpha cellulose is significant in empty oil fruit palm bunches is potential to be used as raw material for the manufacture of cellulose acetate which is an organic ester important that used in textiles, cigarette filters, as well as materials membrane maker. other than that the composition of the cellulose can be converted into bioethanol with the help of bacterial cellulases. In this study, we isolate bacterial cellulases as Ruminococcus sp. waste from slaughterhouses intestine, then the gene encoding the corresponding be inserted into Escherichia coli. The result of the insertion into recombinant bacteria capable of degrading oil palm empty fruit bunches.

What is the significance of this project?

This research is useful to give way in the processing of waste from palm oil industry and slaughterhouse waste, generating recombinant bacteria capable of degrading oil palm empty bunches effectively, then becomes a more useful product. problem to be solved is how to produce the type of recombinant bacteria capable of degrading oil palm empty bunches as long as these bacteria work in symbiosis. Here we tried to use the principle of synthetic Biology.

What are the goals of the project?

produce recombinant bacteria capable of degrading waste cellulase independently. We started the research, as April 2016.

Our research design are:
1. isolation of bacteria from the intestinal waste
2. characterization and identification of bacteria Ruminococcus.
3. Decision cellulase gene coding
4. The insertion of the gene into E. coli
5. Test for cellulose degradation in oil palm empty fruit bunches.

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