Abstract
Environmental pollution and the exploitation of fossil-based products are topical issues that should be a matter of concern to the global population. The production of bio-based substances from waste biomass is a way to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels and limit environmental pollution. Enzymatic catalysed saccharification of cellulose is an important step for the bio-conversion of biomass such as waste paper into glucose that could be utilized as a feedstock for the production of value added bioproducts and this process can also be considered as an alternative route of waste management. During this study, fresh cellulase enzyme from Trichoderma viride was incubated separately with seven different waste paper materials during twelve successive incubation periods of 2 h each. The amount of sugar released from each paper material during each incubation period was determined. The highest sugar concentration released from each paper materials was produced during the first incubation period except the filter paper for which the highest amount of sugar was produced during the 9th period of incubation. During these optimum sugar producing incubation periods the highest total sugar concentration was released from brown envelope paper (3.3 mg.mL-1 followed by foolscap paper (3.0 mg.mL-1) and office paper (2.8 mg.mL-1) while the lowest amount of sugar was released from Pick ’n Pay paper (0.6 mg.mL-1). The relative saccharification percentage was also calculated which showed that filter paper produced the highest amounts of sugar followed by newspaper, and foolscap paper with advertising paper from a retailer. Pick ’n Pay offered the highest resistance towards cellulase catalysed bio-conversion into sugar.
Highlights
The accumulation of municipal solid waste (MSW) amounts to 1300 tons per year with solid waste contributing approximately 3% of the total greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, which makes it as one of the biggest contributors to global warming and climate change (Ndlovu & Van Wyk 2019)
To produce bio-products, the cellulosic component of biomass or waste cellulose has to be hydrolysed by cellulolytic enzymes producing glucose which is fermented into bio-products (Mazzoli 2012)
Paper products are utilized by all global communities and it is a major component of solid waste with cellulose, a structural component of waste paper and glucose-based polymer treated as waste as a result of traditional waste management procedures
Summary
The accumulation of municipal solid waste (MSW) amounts to 1300 tons per year with solid waste contributing approximately 3% of the total greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, which makes it as one of the biggest contributors to global warming and climate change (Ndlovu & Van Wyk 2019). High amounts of solid waste and its improper management worsens air quality in cities which affects the health of human beings negatively (Tahir et al 2015) Cellulosic waste biomass such as sawdust, agricultural residues, and municipal solid waste (waste paper) are quite cheap and abundant alternative substrates for bio-product development (Canilha et al 2013). Waste paper is a heterogeneous mixture of plant material, especially which is rich in cellulose (50-60%) (Veluchamy 2017), a glucose biopolymer that constitutes thousands of glucose units and hemicellulose that is composed of two kinds of pentoses (xylose and arabinose) and three kinds of hexoses (glucose, mannose and galactose) (Saini et al 2015) Lignin which is another biopolymer in paper materials is made up of aromatic compounds only which can’t be hydrolysed as it works as a glue cementing cellulose and hemicellulose together (Seidl & Goulart 2016)
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