Enzymatic saccharification of rice straw and biomass production

Abstract

A comparative study on the saccharification of pretreated rice straw was brought about by using cellulase enzyme produced by Aspergillus terreus ATCC 52430 and its mutant strain UNGI-40. The effect of enzyme and substrate concentrations on the saccharification rate at 24 and 48 were studied. A syrup with 7 percent sugar concentration was obtained with a 10 percent substrate concentration for the mutant case, whereas a syrup with 6.8 percent sugar concentration was obtained with 3.5 times concentrated enzyme from the wild strain. A high saccharification value was obtained with low substrate concentration; the higher the substrate concentration used, the lower the percent saccharification. The glucose content in the hydrolysate comprised 80GÇô82 percent of total reducing sugars; the remainder was cellobiose and xylose together. The hydrolysate supported the growth of yeasts Candida utilis and Saccharomyces cerevisiae ATCC 52431. A biomass with a 48 percent protein content was obtained. The essential amino acid composition of yeast biomass was determined.