10-28: Comparison of the effect of enzymatic extracts from Thermoascus aurantiacus and Trichoderma reesei on sugarcane bagasse saccharification

Cellulose is the most abundant organic compound on earth and a renewable energetic source for producing alternative fuels such as ethanol. The biological conversion of biomass usually involves several sequential steps: lignocellulose pretreatment, enzymatic cellulose hydrolysis, and fermentation. In this work, the fungi Thermoascus aurantiacus CBMAI756 and Trichoderma reesei QM9414 were cultivated by solid-state fermentation (SSF), in sugar cane bagasse and wheat bran (1:1), at 50 °C for 120 hours and 28 °C for 216 hours, respectively. The enzymatic extracts were evaluated for CMCase, Xylanase and β-glucosidase activities. The following results were obtained for T. aurantiacus and T. reesei, respectively (U/g): 535 and 54; 3881 and 640; 14 and 3.5. The enzymatic hydrolysis of sugar cane bagasse was carried out at 60 and 40 °C, and 2% consistence.  The release of reducing sugars increased with the increase of the time reaction reaching a maximum of 7.2 and 9.3%, for the thermophilic and the mesophilic microorganism, respectively. The data suggest that an enzymatic cocktail with both extract might be a promising strategy for future works on the sugar cane hydrolysis.