Xylitol Production from Pineapple Cores (Ananas comosus (L.) Merr) by Enzymatic and Acid Hydrolysis Using Microorganisms Debaryomyces hansenii and Candida tropicalis

Hydrolysis and fermentation processes are key stages in xylitol production from lignocellulosic materials. In this study, pineapple cores, one of the wastes from the canned pineapple industry, were used as raw material for xylitol production. Two methods was used for hydrolysis: enzymatically using commercial enzyme Cellic HTec2, and acid hydrolysis using 4% H2SO4. In contrast, the fermentation process was carried out with two selected yeasts commonly employed in xylitol fermentation, Debaryomycess hansenii, and Candida tropicalis. Before these two processes, the pineapple cores were characterized using the Van Soest method to determine their lignocellulosic content. The hemicellulose content was 36.06%, the cellulose content was 14.20%, and the lignin content was 10.05%. This result indicates that the hemicellulose content of pineapple cores has the potential to be used as a raw material in the production of xylitol. The hydrolysis efficiency of enzymatic hydrolysis was 21% higher than that of acid hydrolysis. The highest xylitol and biomass yield of 0.371 gxylitol/gxylose and 0.225 gcell/gxylose were observed by C. tropicalis using an enzymatic hydrolysate.