Fermentation and saccharification of agro-industrial wastes: A cost-effective approach for dual use of plant biomass wastes for xylose production

Abstract

Industrial enzymes particularly xylanase have more demand due to its vast commercial application in paper and pulp, food, animal feed industries as well as for bioconversion of lignocellulosic waste into valuable chemical products. Xylanases are hydrolase enzyme that catalyzes the β-1,4 linkages in heteropolysaccharide xylan which ultimately yields xylose monomers Microbes mainly fungi are used to synthesize xylanase to catalyze xylan into its component sugars that are further utilized by other microorganisms for consecutive fermentation into biofuel. The current study was focused on the dual use of different agro-industrial waste matrices under submerged fermentation to synthesize xylanase using Aspergillus niger KIBGE-IB36 that also produce xylose after enzymatic pretreatment process. Among all agricultural wastes, high titer of xylanase production (3071 Umg−1) was observed when 1% wheat bran was used. The zymographic analysis revealed multiple xylanase protein bands. To pre-treat agricultural wastes partially purified enzyme was used for different intervals of time showed increasing pattern of reducing sugars. After enzymatic saccharification, agricultural wastes were analyzed for thin layer chromatography (TLC) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) that showed xylose production and maximum change in the surface morphology of all agricultural wastes, respectively. The present study revealed the use of fungi in low cost saccharification process which successfully developed the dual use of agricultural waste to produce xylanase and xylose after enzymatic pretreatment of xylanase that have potential to be use in food and pharmaceutical industry. Xylose can also serve as the most energy-efficient source for biofuel production.