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International Journal of Pure & Applied Bioscience (IJPAB)
Year : 2018, Volume : 6, Issue : 5
First page : (1233) Last page : (1248)
Article doi: : http://dx.doi.org/10.18782/2320-6882

Development of Thermophilic Fungal Consortium for Saccharification of Rice Straw and Its Utilization for Bioethanol Production

Pardeep Kaur¹*, Gurvinder Singh Kocher¹, Monica Sachdeva Taggar², Sarbjit Singh Sooch² and Virendra Kumar³

¹Department of Microbiology, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana-141004, India
²School of Renewable Energy Engineering, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana-141004, India
³Radiation Technology Development Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Trombay, Mumbai, India
*Corresponding Author E-mail: pardeepkaur2108@gmail.com
Received: 15.09.2018  |  Revised: 21.10.2018   |  Accepted: 28.10.2018  

 ABSTRACT

The rice straw is considered to be a promising agricultural byproduct for bioethanol production. The saccaharification of cellulose to fermentable sugars using commercial enzymes is a major deterrent to the economic viability of bioethanol production process. Therefore, use of indigenous microbial enzymes has been suggested.A thermophilic consortium was developed by co-culturing two Aspergillus sp. for the saccharification of rice straw. The fungal consortium exhibited 29.0 U/gdry substrate (gds) filter paper, 90.0 U/gds carboxymethyl cellulase and 22.3 U/gds cellobiase activity significantly higher than the individual Aspergillus sp. The saccharification of two step chemical pretreated rice straw (dilute sulphuric acid followed by sodium hydroxide) with  fungal consortium cellulase resulted in higher reducing sugars (24.9 g/100gds) as compared to individual Aspergillus sp. The fermentation of saccharified and pretreated hydrolysate resulted in a combined ethanol content of 13.2 g100/g.

Key words:  Rice straw, Aspergillus sp., Thermophilic, Co-culturing, Ethanol

Full Text : PDF; Journal doi : http://dx.doi.org/10.18782

Cite this article: Kaur, P., Kocher, G. S., Taggar, M. S., Sooch, S. S. and Kumar, V., Development of Thermophilic Fungal Consortium for Saccharification of Rice Straw and Its Utilization for Bioethanol Production, Int. J. Pure App. Biosci.6(5): 1233-1248 (2018). doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.18782/2320-7051.6882