Enzymatic hydrolysis of biologically pretreated sorghum husk for bioethanol production

• Main Authors: Pankajkumar R. Waghmare, Rahul V. Khandare, Byong-Hun Jeon, Sanjay P. Govindwar
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Green Wave Publishing of Canada 2018-09-01
• Series: Biofuel Research Journal
• Subjects: Sorghum husk; Phanerochaete chrysosporium; Delignification; Biological pretreatment; Enzymatic hydrolysis; Ethanol production
• Online Access: http://www.biofueljournal.com/article_68378_92132cce3e76540bc9460dfcf384ee9b.pdf

Biological pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass is considered to be energy-efficient and cost-effective. In the present study, sorghum husk was biologically pretreated with a white-rot fungus <em>Phanerochaete chrysosporium </em>(MTCC 4955) under submerged static condition. Ligninolytic enzymes like lignin peroxidase (0.843 U/mL) and manganese peroxidase (0.389 U/mL) played an important role in the biological pretreatment of sorghum husk. Activities of different hydrolytic enzymes such as endoglucanase (57.25 U/mL), exoglucanase (4.76 U/mL), filter paperase (0.580 U/mL), glucoamylase (153.38 U/mL), and xylanase (88.14 U/mL) during biological pretreatment of sorghum husk by <em>P. chrysosporium </em>were evaluated. Enzymatic hydrolysis of untreated sorghum husk and biologically pretreated sorghum husk produced 20.07 and 103.0 mg/g reducing sugars, respectively. This result showed a significant increase in reducing sugar production in the biologically pretreated sorghum husk as compared to its untreated counterpart. Biologically pretreated sorghum husk hydrolysate was further fermented for 48 h using <em>Saccharomyces cerevisiae</em> (KCTC 7296), <em>Pachysolen tannophilus</em> (MTCC 1077), and their co-culture resulting in ethanol yields of 2.113, 1.095, and 2.348%, respectively. The surface characteristics of the substrate were evaluated after the delignification and hydrolysis, using FTIR, XRD, and SEM, confirming the effectiveness of the biological pretreatment process.