Abstract
This paper reports a solid-state fungal fermentation-based pre-treatment strategy to convert wheat straw into a fermentable hydrolysate. Aspergillus niger was firstly cultured on wheat straw for production of cellulolytic enzymes and then the wheat straw was hydrolyzed by the enzyme solution into a fermentable hydrolysate. The optimum moisture content and three wheat straw modification methods were explored to improve cellulase production. At a moisture content of 89.5%, 10.2 ± 0.13 U/g cellulase activity was obtained using dilute acid modified wheat straw. The addition of yeast extract (0.5% w/v) and minerals significantly improved the cellulase production, to 24.0 ± 1.76 U/g. The hydrolysis of the fermented wheat straw using the fungal culture filtrate or commercial cellulase Ctec2 was performed, resulting in 4.34 and 3.13 g/L glucose respectively. It indicated that the fungal filtrate harvested from the fungal fermentation of wheat straw contained a more suitable enzyme mixture than the commercial cellulase.
Highlights
There is an increasing interest in the production of biofuels as an alternative solution to the energy shortage and greenhouse gas emission
Wheat straw has been widely used in solid state fermentations for the production of cellulase and a broad range of moisture contents from 50% to 86% has been explored (Table 1)
We investigated a relatively high moisture range in order to accelerate the growth of A. niger and cellulase production
Summary
There is an increasing interest in the production of biofuels as an alternative solution to the energy shortage and greenhouse gas emission. In 2011, around 85 billion litres of bioethanol were produced worldwide. Bioethanol is predominately synthesised via the 1st generation production process, where foodbased crops such as corn, sugar cane and wheat are used as the starting material. Converting food materials to biofuel triggered the concern of global food security and that significantly affected the public acceptance of biofuel. Research into biofuels has been focusing on the development of advanced.
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