CELLULASES PRODUCTION UNDER SOLID STATE FERMENTATION USING AGRO WASTE AS A SUBSTRATE AND ITS APPLICATION IN SACCHARIFICATION BY TRAMETES HIRSUTA NCIM

Abstract

Food and energy crisis are the biggest constraint all over the world which has focused lights on need of utilizing renewable resources to meet the future demand. A promising strategy is efficient utilization of lignocellulosic waste and fermentation of the resulting sugars for production of desired metabolites or biofuel. Production of all the cellulase enzymes on wheat bran and different parameters regulating it like pH, moisture ratio (substrate: liquid), temperature and inoculum size has been optimized which found to be 4.5, 1:3, 30°C and 108 spores respectively. Salient feature of partially purified enzyme with stability in the range of 30-50°C under acidic pH range was found to be prominent for industrial applications, moreover in this study, Trametes hirsuta, an efficient cellulase producer, was observed to be an effective species for saccharification of wheat straw to enhance the sugar yield. Enzymatic hydrolysis of wheat straw with 15 FPU of cellulase from the species showed 73% yield in 20 hrs. It may prove to be a suitable choice for the industrial saccharification of lignocellulosic biomasses.