Oil palm empty fruit bunch (EFB) fibres were pretreated by gamma irradiation followed by sodium carbonate (Na 2 CO 3 ) before the acid hydrolysis process to produce reducing sugars using diluted sulphuric acid (H 2 SO 4 ). In this study, EFB fibres were irradiated at different doses, i.e. 0, 100 and 200 kGy. Meanwhile, the gamma irradiated sample were then subjected to Na 2 CO 3 pretreatment with 0 and 5% total titratable alkali (TTA). The effect of the pretreatment using gamma irradiation and

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... a 2 CO 3 on the physical and chemical properties of the EFB fibres and the yield of the reducing sugar obtained from the acid hydrolysis process was investigated. The obtained results showed that the content of holocellulose was increased significantly with the increase of irradiation doses combined with Na 2 CO 3 pretreatment, whereas lignin content of the EFB was decreased. The gamma irradiation and Na 2 CO 3 pretreatment resulted in structure breakage and removal of silica of EFB fibres which can be due to the swelling of the fibres. A synergistic effect between gamma irradiation and Na 2 CO 3 was observed, in which the yield of reducing sugars was increased by combining the gamma irradiation and Na 2 CO 3 pretreatment. ABSTRAK Serabut tandan kosong kelapa sawit (EFB) telah diprarawat dengan iradiasi gamma dan natrium karbonat (Na 2 CO 3 ) sebelum proses hidrolisis asid untuk penghasilan gula penurun menggunakan asid sulfurik cair (H 2 SO 4 ). Dalam kajian ini, EFB diradiasikan pada dos sinaran gamma yang berbeza iaitu, 0, 100 dan 200 kGy. Kemudian, EFB tersebut diprarawat dengan Na 2 CO 3 pada kepekatan 0 dan 5% kealkalian boleh titrat (TTA). Kesan prarawatan iradiasi gamma dan Na 2 CO 3 terhadap sifat fizikal dan kimia EFB serta penghasilan gula penurun daripada proses hidrolisis asid telah dikaji. Keputusan yang diperoleh menunjukkan kesan prarawatan menyebabkan peningkatan kandungan holoselulosa yang ketara dengan peningkatan dos iradiasi gamma digabungkan dengan prarawatan Na 2 CO 3 , manakala kandungan lignin daripada EFB semakin berkurang. Prarawatan iradiasi gamma dan Na 2 CO 3 boleh menyebabkan kerosakan struktur dan penyingkiran silika daripada gentian EFB disebabkan oleh kesan pembengkakan gentian. Kesan sinergistik antara iradiasi gamma dan Na 2 CO 3 diperhatikan, dengan penghasilan gula penurun meningkat kesan gabungan prarawatan iradiasi gamma dan Na 2 CO 3 .