Chapter 17 - Biomass waste: A potential feedstock for cellulase production

Abstract

Waste biomass disposal or utilization is one of the biggest challenges in the modern-day economy. With the rise in human needs, production of consumables is accelerated, thereby elevating the quantity of waste generated in the process. Conventional disposal methods of biomass wastes involve composting, fodder, or fuel for domestic use like cooking. However, these biomass wastes have abundant availability of the natural biopolymer—cellulose. Cellulose can act as the substrate for cellulolytic bacteria that in turn produce cellulase, which has a high commercial value. For industries utilizing bagasse biomass or any other feedstock for production of commercial or fuel grade ethanol via fermentation, substrate pretreatment becomes an essential step and often a capital and technology-intensive step. With utilization of cheap lignocellulosic wastes as substrates for cellulase production and inexpensive strategies like solid substrate fermentation, production cost for the enzyme can be significantly reduced, thus lowering the overall expense incurred in procuring cellulase for pretreatment and ensure maximum utilization of waste biomass. Several waste biomasses used as feedstock for cellulase production are wheat and rice straw, sugarcane bagasse, and other cheap sources of lignocellulose. This chapter discusses the existing strategies of cellulase production and potential of several novel biomass wastes as candidate substrates for the same.