  Biorefinery sector has become a serious dispute for cleaner and sustainable
development in recent years. In the present study, pretreatment of pineapple
peel waste was carried out in high pressure reactor using various
pretreatment-enhancers. The type and concentration effect of each enhancer on
hemicellulose solubilization was systematically investigated. The binary acid
(phenol + sulfuric acid) at 180 {\deg}C was found to be superior amongst other
studied enhancers, giving 81.17% (w/v) hemicellulose solubilization in
liquid-fraction under optimized conditions. Solid residue thus obtained was
subjected to enzymatic hydrolysis that resulted into 24.50% (w/v) cellulose
breakdown. Treated solid residue was further characterized by scanning electron
microscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy to elucidate structural
changes. The pooled fractions (acid treated and enzymatically hydrolyzed) were
fermented using Clostridium acetobutylicum NRRL B 527 which resulted in butanol
production of 5.18 g/L with yield of 0.13 g butanol/g sugar consumed.
Therefore, pretreatment of pineapple peel waste evaluated in this study can be
considered as milestone in utilization of low cost feedstock, for bioenergy
production.
