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Sains Malaysiana 54(11)(2025):
2733-2744
http://doi.org/10.17576/jsm-2025-5411-13
Direct Oxidation of Various Oil Palm Components using CeO Catalyst for Vanillin Production
(Pengoksidaan Langsung Pelbagai Komponen Kelapa Sawit menggunakan Pemangkin CeO untuk Pengeluaran Vanilin)
ANITA RAMLI1,2,*, NUR AKILA SYAKIDA IDAYU
KHAIRUL ANUAR1,2, FARINAA MD JAMIL1,2, NAJMAN NAQIB
KAMARUZAMAN2, NURAZIEDA DAYANA ROZI2, CHAM HUI JING2,
FARAH ANIS SYAFIQAH MD FARIZAL2 & NUR MASITAH LAILY ZAMRI2
1HICoE
Centre of Biofuel and Biochemical Research, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, 32610 Seri Iskandar, Perak, Malaysia
Received: 28 April 2025/Accepted: 30 September 2025
Abstract
Vanillin has a significant market demand as it is consumed as raw
materials in many daily products such as fragrances and pharmaceuticals. The
supply chain is dominated by synthetic vanillin due to its preferred pathway
and cost-effective manufacturing. The different palm oil biomass feedstocks,
including fronds, trunks, empty fruit bunches, kernel shells, and mesocarp fibers,
were evaluated to determine which one yields the highest vanillin composition
by employed CeO2 nanoparticles as catalyst. The physicochemical
properties of the catalyst were characterized using X-ray diffraction, N₂
adsorption-desorption, temperature-programmed oxidation (TPO), and
temperature-programmed reduction (TPR) analyses to assess the crystallinity,
textural properties, and redox behavior of the CeO2 nanoparticles.
The synthesized CeO2 nanoparticles showed the presence of
diffraction peaks assigned to the presence of cubic fluorite. The N2 adsorption–desorption isotherms showed that all catalysts possess a Type IV
isotherm, indicating a mesoporous structure. From the TPO and TPR profiles,
both surface and bulk oxygen species suggest that surface oxygen vacancies play
a key role in adsorbing and activating oxygen molecules, leading to a high rate
of adsorbed oxygen formation. A direct oxidation method via microwave
irradiation with the presence of a nanoparticle catalyst was used to assist the
lignin derivation to vanillin production. A test done for all waste samples
showed that mesocarp fiber gives the highest vanillin yield of at 6.74% from
the direct oxidation method and 11.93% from the lignin extraction method.
Keywords: Direct oxidation; palm oil; vanillin
Abstrak
Vanilin mempunyai permintaan pasaran yang tinggi sebagai bahan mentah dalam pelbagai produk harian seperti wanigan dan farmaseutikal. Rantaian bekalan vanilin didominasi oleh vanilin sintetik kerana proses penghasilannya lebih digemari serta kos pembuatan yang berkesan. Fokus projek ini adalah untuk memanfaatkan penggunaan biojisim minyak sawit dari Malaysia, sebagai pengeluar utama bahan mentah. Setiap bahagian biojisim minyak sawit seperti pelepah, batang, tandan kosong, tempurung biji dan serat mesokarp, telah dinilai bagi menentukan bahagian yang menghasilkan kandungan vanilin tertinggi. Kaedah pengoksidaan secara langsung melalui pancaran gelombang mikro dengan kehadiran pemangkin cerium(IV) oksida nanozarah telah digunakan untuk membantu penghasilan sintetik vanilin daripada lignin. Keputusan kajian yang dijalankan terhadap semua sampel sisa mendapati bahawa serat mesokarp menghasilkan vanilin tertinggi, iaitu 6.74% melalui kaedah pengoksidaan secara langsung dan 11.93% melalui kaedah pengekstrakan lignin.
Kata kunci: Minyak sawit; pengoksidaan secara langsung; vanilin
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*Corresponding author; email: anita_ramli@utp.edu.my
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