Biological pretreatment of corn stover by solid state fermentation of Phanerochaete chrysosporium

Abstract

Biological pretreatment is a promising way to overcome the biorecalcitrance of cleaving the supermolecular structure of lignocellulose by lignin degrading enzymes from microorganisms. Solid state fermentation of corn stover with the white-rot fungus Phanerochaete chrysosporium was carried out and the efficiency of this pretreatment was evaluated. The enzymatic hydrolysis yield reached a maximum when the corn stover was biologically pretreated for nine days, and the hydrolysis yield decreased sharply if the solid state fermentation was carried out for more than nine days. A possible explanation for this sharp decrease is that not only the lignin degrading enzymes (LiP and MnP) were secreted, but also other metabolites, which were toxic or fatal to the hydrolysis enzymes resulting in the lower hydrolysis yield were generated during the prolonged period of biopretreatment. These results are useful to help determine the optimal timing and to understand the lignin structure and degradation mechanism in biological pretreatment processes.